European survey on clinical use of cord blood for hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic indications

This report describes the evolution of Cord Blood (CB) hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCTs) in Europe over time and its current status. There were 687 patients with a first CB HSCT and a total of 763 allogeneic CB HSCT but no autologous CB HSCT reported in the year 2008. The 687 first transplants correspond to 6% of the total 11,408 allogeneic HSCT. All CB HSCT were for haematological indications; there were no CB transplants reported amongst the 598 cellular transplants listed for non-hematopoietic use. Indications were different depending on donor type. Main indications for the 48 HLA identical family donors CB HSCT were non-malignant disorders (36; 75%) and acute leukaemia (8; 17%). Main indications for the 639 unrelated first CB HSCT were acute leukaemia (337;53%), non-malignant disorders (115;18%) and lymphoproliferative disorders (53; 8%). 159 teams out of the 368 teams performing allogeneic HSCT (43%) reported 1 to 37 CB HSCT (median 3). There were significant differences in use of CB in the participating European countries with a median CB transplant number of 6.5 (range 1-207), transplant rate (number of CB HSCT/10 million inhabitants) of 6.3 (range 0.1-234.6) and a proportion of CB amongst allogeneic HSCT from 0.7% to 18.2% (median 5.4%). These data document the established role of CB HSCT in Europe but point to significant differences in its use.