Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct;56(10):2489-2496.
doi: 10.1038/s41409-021-01367-x. Epub 2021 Jun 14.

Cryopreservation of unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cells: the right answer for transplantations during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Jesus Fernandez-Sojo  1   2 , Carmen Azqueta  3 , Elena Valdivia  3 , Lluis Martorell  3 , Laura Medina-Boronat  3 , Nuria Martínez-Llonch  3 , Silvia Torrents  3 , Margarita Codinach  3 , Carme Canals  3 , Izaskun Elorza  4 , Rocio Parody  5 , Rodrigo Martino  6 , Maria Trabazo  7 , Cristina Díaz de Heredia  8 , Christelle Ferra  9 , David Valcárcel  10 , Mónica Linares  11 , Águeda Ancochea  12 , Enric García-Rey  13 , Nadia García-Muñoz  14 , Laura Medina  15 , Nerea Castillo  16 , Enric Carreras  17 , Juliana Villa  17 , Sergio Querol  3
Affiliations

Cryopreservation of unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cells: the right answer for transplantations during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Jesus Fernandez-Sojo et al. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2021 Oct.

Erratum in

Abstract

Cryopreservation was recommended to ensure continuity of unrelated donor (UD) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) during COVID-19 pandemic. However, its impact on clinical outcomes and feasibility was not well known. We compared 32 patients who underwent UD HSCT using cryopreserved peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) during the COVID-19 pandemic with 32 patients who underwent UD HSCT using fresh PBSC in the previous period. Median neutrophil engraftment was 17.5 and 17.0 days with cryopreserved and fresh grafts, respectively. Non-significant delays were found in platelet recovery days (25.5 versus 19.0; P = 0.192) and full donor chimerism days (35.0 and 31.5; P = 0.872) using cryopreserved PBSC. The rate of acute graft-versus-host disease at 100 days was 41% (95% CI [21-55%]) in cryopreserved group versus 31% (95% CI [13-46%]) in fresh group (P = 0.380). One-hundred days progression-relapse free survival and overall survival did not differ significantly. During COVID-19 pandemic, six frozen UD donations were not transfused and logistical and clinical issues regarding cryopreservation procedure, packaging, and transporting appeared. In summary, UD HSCT with cryopreserved PBSC was safe during this challenging time. More efforts are needed to ensure that all frozen grafts are transplanted and cryopreservation requirements are harmonized.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Cumulative incidence of hematological recovery and full donor chimerism according to UD HSC (cryopreserved versus fresh).
The cumulative incidences of A neutrophil recovery, B platelet recovery, and C full donor chimerism are shown for the groups of patients who underwent UD HSCT with either cryopreserved (solid line) or fresh PBSC (dashed line).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Cumulative incidence of acute GVHD and preemptive CMV treatment disease, PFS, and OS according to UD HSC (cryopreserved versus fresh).
The cumulative incidences of A acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), B preemptive therapy on CMV disease, C progression-relapse-free survival, and D overall survival are shown for the groups of patients who underwent UD HSCT with either cryopreserved (solid line) or fresh grafts (dashed line).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Frey NV, Lazarus HM, Goldstein SC. Has allogeneic stem cell cryopreservation been given the “cold shoulder”? An analysis of the pros and cons of using frozen versus fresh stem cell products in allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transpl. 2006;38:399–405. doi: 10.1038/sj.bmt.1705462. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Szer J, Weisdorf D, Querol S, Foeken L, Madrigal A. The impact of COVID-19 on the provision of donor hematopoietic stem cell products worldwide: collateral damage. Bone Marrow Transpl. 2020;23:1–2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Recommendations of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) regarding the situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020. https://www.ebmt.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/EBMT%20COVID-19%20guide....
    1. Recommendations of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) regarding donor medical suitability in the situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic 2021. https://share.wmda.info/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=344866320.
    1. Hamadani M, Zhang MJ, Tang XY, Fei M, Brunstein C, Chhabra S, et al. Graft cryopreservation does not impact overall survival after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation using post-transplantation cyclophosphamide for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis. Biol Blood Marrow Transpl. 2020;26:1312–7. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2020.04.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed