Cord blood transplant possible even if unmatched

Durham, February 16: According to a Duke University Medical Center researchers report, umbilical corddefine blood transplant can be successful even if taken from an unmatched donor. It can help children suffering from cancerdefine and sickle cell anaemia.

Researchers observed that it is relatively easier to obtain unrelated cord blood than an adult bone marrow. This simply means that more number of patients can benefit now.

Lead researcher Dr. Vinod Prasad, a Paediatric Oncologistdefine in the Duke Paediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program, was quoted as saying, “Our study found that using cord blood can be effective, without increased complications and can provide more matches for patients, including ethnic minorities.”

He further added, “Based on the findings of our study, we believe that unrelated cord blood transplant should be considered as an option for many of our young patients in need of a transplant.”

For the research purposes, Prasad and his fellow researchers took into account statistics of 314 patients treated at Duke between 1993 and 2007. The age of these patients ranged from six months to 21 years and they had malignant and non-malignant conditions.

Elaborating on the subject, Dr. Prasad said, “In order to match a donor to a recipient, doctors compare HLA typing, a test usually performed on a blood sample.”

Every individual possesses a specific type of HLA typing. This consists of a genetic structure at three points. And within these points, doctors look at one set from the mother and one from the father. Ultimately, doctors end up doing a six-point comparison.

On analyzing the data, researchers found that in cases where donor units matched at four out of six points, the transplant went off successfully. These results were quite similar to the ones seen in patients who got closer matched transplants.

Prasad said, “Thus the use of the 4/6 matched donors improved access to transplant for patients, especially those of ethnic and racial minorities.”

Dr. Prasad also praised the National Marrow Donor Program registry for increasing the number of volunteer donors. But he did add that finding a matched donor is really tough in many cases, especially in the case of ethnic and racial minorities.

The present study was supposed to be presented at the meeting of the American Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation in Tampa, Florida.