Unique Role of Anti-Human T-lymphocyte Immune Globulin in the Prevention of Chronic Graft-versus-host Disease

LONDON, December 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Nicolaus Kröger; European Oncology & Haematology, 2016;12(2):93-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17925/EOH.2016.12.02.93

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Published recently in European Oncology & Haematology Review, the peer-reviewed journal from touchONCOLOGY, Nicolaus Kröger discusses chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), which is a major cause of late morbidity and mortality post-allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Compared with acute GVHD, for which progress in preventative measures have been made, chronic GVHD describes a more diverse syndrome, and may adversely affect almost all organs in the body. A new prospective, multicentre, open-label, randomised phase III study (n=168) showed that the use of anti-human T-lymphocyte immune globulin (ATLG) in a myeloablative conditioning regimen for patients with acute leukaemia led to a significantly lower rate of chronic GVHD post-allogeneic transplantation compared with those receiving the same regimen without ATLG. Importantly, no increased rate of relapses in the patients who received ATLG was seen compared with those who did not. Thus, there was no apparent impairment in the graft-versus-leukaemia effect in ATLG-treated patients. The study was terminated at 2 years and more evidence about the long-term effect of ATLG on survival and GVHD relapses beyond this time-point are needed. Nonetheless, the findings represent a significant advance in the prevention of chronic GVHD.

The full peer-reviewed, open-access article is available here:

https://doi.org/10.17925/EOH.2016.12.02.93

Disclosure: Nicolaus Kröger received research grant from Neovii Pharmaceuticals AG.

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