Sir, Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurs in approximately 60 – 80% of patients who survive for 100 days after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) (1). The skin is affected in almost all cases of chronic GVHD, with two distinct phases: the early chronic phase, characterized by lichenoid lesions similar to lichen planus, and the late chronic phase, with sclerodermatous lesion...

PURPOSE Recent studies suggest that donor B cells as well as T cells contribute to immune pathology in patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). B-cell activating factor (BAFF) promotes survival and differentiation of activated B cells. Thus, we tested whether BAFF correlated with chronic GVHD disease activity and time of onset after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantat...

Graft versus host disease (GVHD) has traditionally been divided into acute GVHD and chronic GVHD based on the period it occurs after transplantation. Chronic cutaneous GVHD has traditionally been classified into the lichenoid and scleroderma-like forms. However, unusual clinical forms have been reported such as dermatomyositis, lupus erythematosus and exfoliative dermatitis. A 35-year-old woman...

Despite improvements in the practice of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) over the last 25 years, chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains a substantial problem with little change in the incidence, morbidity, and mortality of this complication. In fact, with increased use of peripheral blood, transplantation of older patients, and less immediate transplantation-re...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the mixed lymphocyte culture as a predictive assay of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). We studied 153 patients who received a first bone marrow transplantation from human leukocyte antigen-identical siblings. Acute GVHD was observed in 26 of 128 (20.3%) patients evaluated and chronic GVHD occurred in 60 of 114 (52.6%). One-way ...

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) requires long-term immunosuppressive therapy after hematopoietic cell transplantation. We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 751 patients with chronic GVHD to identify characteristics associated with the duration of immunosuppressive treatment. Among the 274 patients who discontinued immunosuppressive therapy after resolution of chronic GVHD before rec...

In 2005, the National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Project on Criteria for Clinical Trials in Chronic GVHD proposed a new scoring system for individual organs and an algorithm for calculating global severity (mild, moderate, severe). The Chronic GVHD Consortium was established to test these new criteria. This report includes the first 298 adult patients enrolled at 5 centers of th...

We investigated the prognostic value of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte precursor frequencies (CTL-p-f) for the development of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in a cohort of 92 recipients of a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from HLA-matched sibling donors. CTL-p-f and clinical variables were correlated with acute GvHD and chronic GvHD in univariate and multivariate analyses. CTL-p-f resulted a...

(allo-HCT) can be curative for patients with acute leukemia [1]. The anti-leukemia activity relies on the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effects that are elicited after allo-HCT, suggesting that anti-tumor immunity may be responsible for eradicating leukemia and preventing subsequent relapse. However, allo-HCT is associated with significant morbidity and mortality resulting from toxicity of dose-i...

IMPORTANCE Chronic graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) affects 50% to 70% of patients who receive allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplants (HCTs), and the skin is the most common site of involvement. Chronic cutaneous GVHD can present with sclerotic or nonsclerotic changes of the skin and often requires treatment with systemic immunosuppressants, extracorporeal photopheresis, or phototherapy. We desc...