A new study (phase I/II) done by Francesco Frasson, of San Martino Hospital, Genoa, Italy, and his colleagues reveals about a new technique in which acute leukaemia can be cured with minimum chance of developing graft-versus-host disease.

This new technique involves direct intrabone administration of unrelated umbilical-cord-blood stem cells in the patients suffering from disease.

This new study was undergone involving 32 patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Then a suitable unrelated cord-blood unit was found for each patient, with human leucocyte antigen ( HLA ) matching 5/6 for nine patients, 4/6 for 22 patients, and 3/6 for one patient. Then the cord cells concentrated in 5-ml of syringes were injected in the superior-posterior iliac crest under rapid general anaesthesia.

After one year, with a median follow-up of 13 months they found that overall survival was 45% with complete achievement of neutrophil, platelet, and reconstitution of haemopoiesis from cord-blood cells. The major achievement was, no case of acute graft-versus-host disease.

Frassoni says that, this experiment is a success, but we are waiting to see the results in a larger series of patients.

Source: http://www.xagena.it/