[Human umbilical cord blood transplantation in 4 cases with advanced solid tumors]

Four patients with solid tumors were treated with high dose chemotherapy and HLA-mismatched multi-cord blood transplantation. Of them, 3 reached complete remission, 1 got fair response. The side effects were tolerable. Little or no graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) was observed. Donor cell engraftment was documented in 2 patients by cytogenetic analysis and determination of hemoglobin F of the peripheral blood. Recurrent diseases were confirmed clinically on day 210 (4 year-old girl with liposarcoma) and day 90 (11 year-old boy with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). These results demonstrated that HLA-mismatched multicord blood transfusion could rescue myelo-suppression of patients treated with myeloablative chemotherapy. Therefore, cord blood may serve as a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells.