Alternative sources of haematopoietic cells including cord blood today and tomorrow. The outlook for cord blood banks - conclusions of the Panel of Experts
Abstract
Most patients who require allogeneic stem cell transplantation do not have a matched sibling donor. A matched unrelated donor is not available for up to 25% of these patients who are thus candidates for allogeneic transplantation using alternative donors: family haploidentical donors, mismatched unrelated donors or cord blood.
Thanks to the availability of alternative donors, we are able to transplant almost every patient who requires this treatment modality. The individual types of alternative donors have their specific advantages and disadvantages, both medical and economical.
The aim of this publication is to provide a comparison of available alternative donors. The increasing number of haploidentical transplants cannot be ignored and it is obvious that the trend for using alternative donors of hematopoietic stem cells is changing.
The importance of cord blood is gradually decreasing and this is affecting the position and economic situation of public cord blood banks. Therefore, the conclusions made by the panel of experts also deal with the future use of umbilical cord blood and discuss various concepts of cord blood banks.