Cord blood transplantation and cord blood bank in Japan

The first cord blood transplantation (CBT) was performed in a 5-year-old bo y with acute mylogenous leukemia from his HLA-identical sibling donor in 19 94, Since then there have been 17 related and 131 unrelated CBTs in Japan. Overall survival and disease-free survival (DFS) were over 70% in sibling d onor CBT, DFS of unrelated CBT in leukemia and other hematological malignan cies was 43%, and OS of UCBT in non-malignant diseases was 63%, HLA dispari ty between the donor and the recipient did not affect the incidence and sev erity of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) or survival, Cell dose was the most important factor for engraftment and survival both in malignant an d in nonmalignant diseases. The Japanese government has recently establishe d the nationwide cord blood bank network, and eight local cord blood hanks are financially supported by the government. 20 000 units of CB are planned to be collected and stored in the next 5 years by this network.