Searching for unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cells: Availability and speed of umbilical cord blood versus bone marrow

Abstract

Unrelated donor (URD) umbilical cord blood (UCB) has several potential advantages over URD BM for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. To examine the efficiency of donor identification for each of these URD stem cell sources, we reviewed the search processes for all pediatric and adult URD transplantation referrals to the University of Minnesota during a period of 1 year. Of 171 consecutive referrals for URD transplantation, 108 patients proceeded to a formal URD search with selection of at least 1 donor. Significantly more formal UCB searches (54%) than BM searches (21%) were performed for patients who required urgent transplantation (P < .01). For the 76 patients who proceeded to transplantation, patients receiving UCB received a transplant a median of 25 days more rapidly than did those receiving BM (P