- Dec 8, Med Page Today
Leukemia patients receiving umbilical cord blood stem cells expanded in the laboratory showed markedly faster engraftment compared with conventional transplant, a researcher said here.
With the investigational lab procedure, engraftment took a median of 16 days among the first 10 patients receiving one unit of expanded cord blood cells and one unit of unmanipulated cells, reported Colleen Delaney, M.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. It took a median of 26 days to achieve engraftment in 20 patients receiving two unmanipulated units.
The more rapid engraftment shortened the interval during which patients had low white-cell counts that left them susceptible to life-threatening infections, she said at the American Society of Hematology meeting here.
