Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation without Antithymocyte Globulin Results in Similar Survival but Better Quality of Life Compared with Unrelated Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation for the Treatment of Acute Leukemia-A Retrospective Study in Chin

Although previous studies have demonstrated improved outcomes in umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) by omitting antithymocyte globulin (ATG) in the conditioning regimen, this approach has not been comparatively studied in unrelated peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (UPBSCT). To compare the risks and benefits between UCBT without ATG and UPBSCT in patients with acute leukemia (AL), we conducted a multicenter retrospective study of 79 patients who underwent UCBT (myeloablative conditioning without ATG) and 96 patients who underwent UPBSCT (myeloablative conditioning with ATG). The outcomes were graft failure, neutrophil engraftment, platelet engraftment, acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), transplantation-related mortality (TRM), relapse, overall survival (OS), and leukemia-free survival (LFS). Follow-up was censored on October 31, 2016. Engraftment was similar between the 2 groups but granulocyte and platelet recovery were slower in the UCBT group (both P .05). Without ATG, the UCBT group displayed less cGVHD and less moderate and severe cGVHD (P