John Wagner, M.D.

University of Minnesota researchers report that umbilical cord blood transplants may offer blood cancer patients better outcomes than bone marrow transplants. This study is the first that directly compares outcomes of pediatric leukemia patients who received unrelated bone marrow transplants with those who received umbilical cord transplants.

Remarkably, mismatched cord blood performed as well as matched bone marrow as measured by leukemia-free survival rates. The research appears in the June 9, 2007, issue of The Lancet.

John Wagner, M.D., director of the Department of Pediatrics, Hematology-Oncology and Blood Marrow Transplantation and member of the Cancer Center's Transplant Biology and Therapy Program, was senior investigator for the study.

Read the Academic Health Center news release for more information.