Umbilical cord blood transplantation

Purpose of review Familiar and unrelated umbilical cord blood is an appealing alternative source of hernatopoietic stem cells patients undergoing transplantation for a wide variety of diseases. In the unrelated donor transplant setting, shorter time to transplant, which is particularly relevant to patients requiring urgent transplantation, and tolerance of 1-2 human leukocyte antigen mismatch, which increases the chance of finding a suitable donor, are evident advantages over bone marrow transplantation. The speed of engraftment is slower after cord blood transplantation but it is counterbalanced by a lower incidence of severe graft-versus-host disease. Cell dose and human leukocyte antigen are major factors influencing outcome after umbilical cord blood transplantation. Recent findings Unrelated donor cord blood transplantation is considered an acceptable option to bone marrow for pediatric transplantation, and recent data in adults point the same way. Summary This review describes the recent clinical results of cord blood transplantation and discusses developing research strategies aimed at optimizing this kind of transplantation.