We experienced a successful transplantation using HLA-matched sibling cord blood In a 5 years old girl with relapsed acute mixed lineage leukemia.
The patient was diagnosed as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in August, 1995, and received anticancer chemotherapy until October, 1997. She maintained complete remission until January, 1998, when relapsed as mixed lineage leukemia with the phenotype of T cell ALL with coexpression of myeloid antigens. After achieving second complete remission by reinduction chemotherapy, we planned a cord blood transplant for our patient, whose mother was in the third trimester of pregnancy at the time of relapse.
The volume of collected cord blood was 100 mL and fortunately, histocompatibility test disclosed complete matching with the patient. The cord blood was cryopreserved following depletion of red cells with 3% gelatin. The thawed cord blood consisting of 3.6×10⁷/㎏ of total nucleated cells and 3.3×10⁵/㎏ of CD34⁺ cells, was infused to the patient following myeloablative chemotherapy. The absolute neutrophil count exceeded 500/㎕ on day +37 and platelet count (untransfused) 20,000/㎕ on day +114. She suffered from 2 episodes of sepsis and CMV pneumonia during her clinical course but recovered completely without complication and discharged with good condition on day +116.

Keywords: Cord blood, Stem cell transplantation, Acute leukemia