Umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplant from unrelated mismatched donor in patients with high risk (HR) leukemia.

Ten consecutive children with high risk leukemia have been submitted to UCB transplant from unrelated HLA mismatched donors. All patients received an identical regimen for conditioning and GVHD prophylaxis. The median dose of viable nucleated cells infused was 2.6 x 10(6)/kg b.w. Among the nine patients evaluable for engraftment the hematopoiesis was of full donor origin in six patients and autologous in three. At a median follow-up of 9 months, six of nine (67%) patients are alive in CR.