Unrelated cord blood transplantation for patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: experience at a single institute

We report the results of unrelated cord blood transplantation (UCBT) for patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) conducted in our single institute. Ten patients with ATLL (nine acute and one lymphoma-type) received UCBT during the period from August 2003 to July 2011. The median age at the time of diagnosis of ATLL was 51 years (range 37–64). The median period from diagnosis of ATLL to UCBT was 130 days (range 94–344). Conditioning regimens were myeloablative for six and reduced intensity for four. The median number of infused nucleated cells and CD34 positive cells were 2.52 × 10 7 /kg and 1.04 × 10 5 /kg, respectively. There was no engraftment failure. Three patients developed grade II acute graft versus host disease, and four developed grade III. The estimated 2-year overall survival was 40 % (95 % CI 12–67 %). Four of six chemosensitive patients prior to UCBT survived for 1035, 793, 712, and 531 days post-UCBT, respectively. There were no survivors among the four chemorefractory patients prior to UCBT. Our data indicates that UCBT is feasible and provides long-term survival in patients with chemosensitive ATLL.