Seventh Annual International Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium, Los Angeles, California, June 5-6, 2009

Abstract

The Seventh Annual International Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium was presented by the Cord Blood Forum and was partially supported by unrestricted educational grants from StemCyte International Cord Blood Center, the National Marrow Donor Program, and the Cleveland Cord Blood Center. The symposium also was partially supported by a contract between the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The 34-member faculty for the symposium included leaders from major transplantation centers from around the world. Attendees were from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Boliva, Brazil, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Venezuela. The program consisted of 6 plenary sessions and 4 simultaneous sessions. The plenary sessions covered (1) clinical results in umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT); (2) conditioning regimens in UCBT; (3) graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), infection, and relapse after UCBT; (4) nonhematopoietic uses of cord blood (CB); (5) new considerations in CB unit selection; and (6) selecting the optimal CB unit. The simultaneous sessions were (IA) CB processing and evaluation of potency, (IB) CB banking and federal support, (IIA) basic science/immunobiology, and (IIB) disease-specific outcomes and new approaches