Stable Long-Term Pulmonary Function after Myeloablative Double Cord Blood Transplant

Pulmonary dysfunction has been well described after myeloablative transplantation with conventional allogeneic donors; however, whether the risk is similar after alternative donor transplantation with cord blood as the stem cell source has not yet been investigated. We performed a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent double cord blood transplantation after myeloablative conditioning. Pulmonary function tests were performed pretransplantation and at day 80, 1 year, and 2 years posttransplantation, with 56 patients included in the final analysis. No significant change from baseline with respect to the mean values and mean change in pulmonary function test values were observed at 1 year posttransplantation. The rate of lung function decline from baseline to 1 year posttransplantation was <5% in 75% patients; mildly abnormal lung function was reported in 58% of the patients. The cumulative incidence of noninfectious pulmonary complications was 9.7%. Future prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.