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EXPERIENCES OF THE STEMCYTE UMBILICAL CORD BANK.
David Senitzer Ph.D. , Richard Tonai CHS , Bella Box , Sarah Santos CHS , Richard Krieg Ph.D. , Richard Chow MD and Larry Petz MD . Arcadia CA, USA, Stemcyte Inc, 91007, HLA Laboratory .
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is an accepted source of stem cells for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). HLA matching for UCB cells need not be as stringent as that required for other allogeneic stem cell sources. An adequate total nucleated cell dose, at least 1.5 x to7/kg patient body weight, combined with a 4/6 or better HLA match, are the major selection criteria. UCB has the potential to satisfy the large unmet need for appropriate donors for patients in need of a hematopoietic cell transplantation. HLA matching is heavily influenced by racial origins of the donor and patient. Our goal was to establish a large, ethnically diverse cord blood bank. Most of the UCB units were collected in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which is comprised of vastly diverse ethnic groups. Our UCB bank of more than 7,000 units is comprised of Asian (16%) Caucasian (28%), Hispanic (48%), Black (3%), NatAMer (0.2%), and unknown (5%). The number of direct search requests of our bank and matches by race are depicted below.
Table 1: Search Results Race Number Searches 6/6 Match 5/6 Match 4/6 Match #Unit Matches/Search Asian 179 33 287 828 6 Black 33 0 13 240 8 Caucasian 121 5 159 1666 15 Hispanic 73 4 93 829 13 Unknown 106 8 140 1246 13 Total 512
These searches have resulted in 20 transplants since inception. A diverse UCB bank results in greater accessibility to HCT for patients unable to find a suitably matched related or unrelated allogeneic stem cell donor.