Cord blood transplantation for pediatric non-malignant conditions

Abstract

Although the majority of hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCT) are done for patients with malignant diseases, it should be remembered that a high proportion of pediatric transplants are done for non-malignant disease, and this is particularly true for unrelated transplants. HSCT is a curative option for many inherited and acquired non-malignant diseases that show abnormalities of the blood or bone marrow (BM)-derived cells. Most patients who could benefit from HSCT lack a suitable related donor and either may not have a suitable or unrelated BM donor identified or the patient cannot wait for the delay of a search of the unrelated marrow donor registries. Cord blood (CB) transplantation (CBT) has been shown to be a viable alternative for these patients. There may also be a theoretical benefit, especially for patients with inborn metabolic errors, if CB cells have greater capacity of de-differentiate into non-hematopoietic tissues [1]. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009.