A Harvard study found that treating umbilical cord blood with a molecule called 16, 16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2) caused the blood to grow more stem cells faster than untreated cord blood when transplanted into 12 cancer patients. The study successfully helped all patients reconstitute their immune systems. Harvard will now conduct a larger Phase II study involving 60 cancer patients across eight medical centers to further evaluate using dmPGE2 to increase the success of blood stem cell transplants.