Transplant physicians' perceptions of cord blood transplantation in Korea: a questionnaire survey

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough bone marrow (BM) or mobilized peripheral blood (PB) is frequently used as the source of hematopoietic stem cells, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) using cord blood (CB) is gradually gaining popularity in many countries. However, BM or PB is still preferred over CB in Korea. Therefore, we tried to assess the awareness of CB transplantation (CBT) among domestic HSCT physicians and develop strategies for boosting its utilization by administering questionnaires to some of these physicians.MethodsA direct questionnaire survey was conducted using the "Audience Response System" among 301 members who attended the annual meeting of the Korean Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. The data were analyzed for only 67 board certified physicians who were directly involved in HSCT activities.ResultsThe poor outcomes resulting from insufficient experience in CBT was designated by the physicians as the main reason for the low domestic implementation of HSCT using CB. Other reasons identified in the survey were distrust in the quality and management of domestic CB and the high cost of obtaining CB.ConclusionIncreasing the use of donated CB would foremost require increasing the inventory of donated CB containing a sufficient cell number for CBT and securing structured quality control of the CB banks. In addition, it would be necessary to minimize CB supply costs and continue to provide academic data, including CBT guidelines, so that clinicians could perform CBT with more confidence.

Here comes the cord

“…On the other hand, the utilized percentage of donated CB units all over the world is 6.3% reported by World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), however it was reported as 1.2% in Korea. In this issue of Blood Research , Choi et al [ 5 ] has analyzed the reasons by the questionnaire survey using "Audience Response System" for 67 board-certified transplant physicians at the annual meeting of the Korean Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. According to ordinary expectations, Korean physicians are now not positive for choose CB units as stem cell source for transplantation, because of the fears for poor clinical results and for unsatisfied quality of CB units from domestic CB banks.…”