Umbilical cord blood transplantation: an insight

Allogeneic haemopoeitic stem cell transplant remains to be the only curative option for many patients with haemoglobinopathy, aplastic anaemia, leukaemia, myelodysplastic syndrome and metabolic storage disorders. The frequency of finding a matched sibling donor is 30%.1 The sources of stem cells include peripheral blood and bone marrow. In the recent years there has been advancement in the use of umbilical cord blood derived stem cells for allogeneic transplant.