107-P

Abstract

Aim In Saudi the chance of finding matched sibling is around 70% which is higher than many other countries, due to large family size. For the remaining 30% of the patients, the probability of finding a match in the international unrelated bone marrow registries is slim to null. The emergence of the cord blood transplantation that allows less than perfect HLA matching between patient and cord blood unit (CBU), gave a chance to more patients to be transplanted. In this study we analyzed the chance of finding a suitable CBU, the level of HLA ABDR matching and the cost effectiveness of the cord blood bank at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. Methods A total of 266 consecutive searches (216 for pediatrics and 50 for adult patients) were evaluated within the 3440 CBU inventory at KFSH & RC cord blood bank that resulted in 69 transplants between Oct-2008 to Dec-2011. The CBU was typed at the low resolution level for HLA-A, HLA-B and at the high resolution level for HLA-DRB1 alleles. Results 89.1% of the patients found at least one CBU equal or greater than 4/6 HLA match with total nucleated (TNC) cell ⩾3.7 × 10 7 /kg. 50.2 of the patients had 4/6 HLA match, 42.2% of the patients had 5/6 HLA match and 7.6% had 6/6 HLA match CBU. 10.9% of the patients did not find 4/6 or better match. As the numbers of CBU is adding up, the need to imported CBU is decreased. In 2009, 44% of the donor CBU were imported, in 2010 16.6% and in 2011 only 9% were imported. In addition to less time from search until the unit ready for transplant, the cost of the CBU from our cord blood bank is only 21% of the cost of the imported CBU. Conclusions This study clearly indicates the cost effectiveness of the institution cord blood bank and the needs to increase the inventory size to improve the probability of finding 5/6 or full house 6/6 CBU.