Iron Overload Is Associated with Delayed Engraftment and Increased Nonrelapse Mortality in Recipients of Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

The negative impact of iron overload (IO) on outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is well recognized, but its impact on umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplant outcome is unknown. We retrospectively analyzed outcomes of 150 patients who received UCB-HCT at our institution, stratified by pre-HCT serum ferritin (SF) level of 2000 ng/mL. Two-year overall survival rate among patients with SF >2000 and ≤2000 ng/mL was 26.1% (95% CI, 10.6% to 44.7%) and 52.1% (95% CI, 40.1% to 62.8%), respectively; hazard ratio (HR) = 2.26 (95% CI, 1.28 to 4.00, P = .005). Two-year nonrelapse mortality rate was higher among patients with SF >2000 ng/mL (56.5%; 95% CI, 33.3% to 74.4%) compared to SF ≤2000 ng/mL (30.1%; 95% CI, 20.0% to 40.9%); HR = 2.18 (95% CI, 1.10 to 4.31, P = .025). Neutrophil engraftment at 42 days was 78.3% (95% CI, 53.5% to 90.8%) in patients with SF >2000 ng/mL versus 91.8% (95% CI, 82.1% to 96.4%) in patients with SF ≤2000 ng/mL; HR = 0.58 (95% CI, 0.35 to 0.96, P = .034). A significant difference in platelet engraftment at 3 months was also observed: 52.2% (95% CI, 29.4% to 70.8%) for SF >2000 ng/mL versus 80.8% (95% CI, 69.5% to 88.3%) for SF ≤2000 ng/mL; HR = 0.48 (95% CI, 0.23 to 0.98, P = .044). In conclusion, IO defined by SF of 2000 ng/mL is a strong adverse prognostic factor for UCB-HCT and should be considered when UCB is chosen as the graft source for patients without a fully matched donor.