The presently-adopted treatment therapy for treating graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after bone marrow or cord blood transplant may not be as effective as considered besides failing with mortality.

Joshua L. Weintraub, M.D., chief of the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, remarked that interventional radiology treatment can be life-saving for people with steroid-resistant GVHD.

From News-Medical.Net:

GVHD is a common complication of an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (one using blood-forming cells donated by a family member or unrelated donor) or cord blood transplant. With GVHD, the immune cells from the donated marrow or cord blood (the graft) attack the body of the transplant patient (the host). GVHD, which can be mild to life-threatening, can affect many different parts of the body, particularly the skin, liver and intestines. In this study the affected organs were the liver and small and large bowels.

Studies from the 1990s show that steroid resistance is common—80 percent of people fail to have a sustained, complete response rate or only have a partial response, which means the immune cells are still attacking the organ to varying degrees. “Until now, there has been no good therapy for steroid-resistant patients with GVHD. This small study—the first of its kind in the United States—shows a new, viable option; however, larger studies with longer follow-up results are needed,” added Weintraub.

According to Weintraub, there were no immediate procedure or drug-related complications and the treatment option appears to be a safe and effective one for fighting against GVHD.

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