Transplantation of umbilical cord blood in neuroblastoma

It has been shown that umbilical cord blood contains concentrations of hematopoietic progenitor cells equal to those of normal adult bone marrow. We successfully performed transplantation of cord blood combined with a hematopoietic growth factor (rGM-CSF) in a seven year old child suffering from neuroblastoma. Cord blood cells were collected from an HLA identical sibling at the time of delivery and stored in liquid nitrogen. The patient was conditioned with busulfan 600 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide 200 mg/kg before receiving the thawed cells. There were no immediate side effects. Hematological reconstitution occurred promptly (granulocytes greater than 0.5 x 10(9)/L on day 13, platelets greater than 30 x 10(9)/L on day 40), although at day 10 the child experienced acute grade II cortico-sensitive GvHD. Mixed hematopoietic chimerism was observed 2 months later and complete remission lasted for 8 months.