Fourteen years of national data show the safety record of donated cord blood

StemCyte’s public cord blood bank is one of 27 banks whose units were included in a new national review led by NMDP, with researchers from Cleveland Cord Blood Center, Bloodworks Northwest and StemCyte. The results were presented as a scientific poster at the 2026 AABB Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

When a patient needs a cord blood transplant, the unit usually comes from a public cord blood bank and reaches the hospital through NMDP, the national program that matches donors with patients. Every unit has to meet strict specifications before it ships, and NMDP investigates every problem reported after it does.

What the researchers looked at

The researchers reviewed every product complaint and every report of a serious patient reaction for cord blood units shipped between January 2012 and December 2025. That covered 13,358 units from 27 public cord blood banks.

A product complaint is any report that a unit may not have met one of its specifications. A serious adverse event is a serious reaction linked, or possibly linked, to the cord blood infusion.

What they found

• Most units shipped without a single issue. Of 13,358 units from 27 public banks nationwide, 94% had nothing reported against them.
• Half the complaints weren't about the cord blood. Nearly half involved outside factors rather than the quality of the unit itself.
• Serious reactions were rare. Over 14 years, 30 serious reactions were classified as possibly related to the infusion, about 0.2% of units shipped. No single type reached 0.1%. The most common were heart problems, infusion reactions and allergic reactions, and the authors report serious events declined over the period.

What it means

A cord blood transplant depends on a chain that has to work every time: cells collected and frozen years earlier, shipped across the country, and thawed at the bedside. Fourteen years of national data show that chain working, and show how close tracking keeps improving it. The authors conclude that cord blood units remain a reliable and safe treatment option for patients who need cell therapy.

An honest note

This review measured product problems and serious reactions. It did not measure how well transplants worked, and it covers donated units distributed through NMDP, not privately banked cord blood.

StemCyte’s part

StemCyte has run a public cord blood bank since 2000, and its units are part of the 13,358 in this review. Our public and private banks have been AABB accredited since 2002 and FACT accredited since 2006, and the same quality standards apply to every unit we store for families.