Unrelated cord blood and bone marrow transplantation in pediatric leukemia

To investigate the role of cord blood as an alternative stem cell source for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for pediatric acute leukemia, we retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of 35 unrelated cord blood transplantations (UCBT) and 56 unrelated bone marrow transplantations (UBMT) with myeloablative conditioning. The 5 year overall survival (OS) probability was 49.8% (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 35.6-62.4%) for UBMT and 53.8% (95%CI: 34.0-70.1%) for UCBT (P = 0.92). The 5 year event-free survival (EFS) probability was 47.3% (33.6-59.8%) for UBMT and 33.0% (15.9-51.2%) for UCBT (P = 0.38). OS and EFS were not significantly different between the groups. On multivariate analysis there was no significant difference between the groups. In conclusion, UCBT can have a role as important as that of UBMT in pediatric acute leukemia.