Photo Credit: Meletios Verras

The following is a summary of “Impact of stem cell source on secondary steroid for chronic GVHD after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation,” published in the November 2024 issue of Hematology by Sanda et al. 

Inappropriate immunosuppressive drugs (ISD) discontinuation after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) can lead to chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). Few studies compare steroid discontinuation rates for cGVHD across stem cell sources. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess secondary steroid discontinuation rates for cGVHD after allogeneic HCT. 

They conducted a retrospective evaluation of 191 HCT patients to assess secondary steroid discontinuation rates for cGVHD. Of these, 50 patients (26.7%) received secondary steroids for cGVHD. 

The results showed that 2-year steroid discontinuation rates for cGVHD were 50.0%, 0%, 8.3%, 44.0%, and 40.0% for MSD, uPBSC, uBM, UCB, and PTCy-haplo, respectively (P = 0.0313). Patients with uPBSC or uBM had significantly lower rates than those with other stem cell sources (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed lower discontinuation rates in the uPBSC and uBM groups compared to MSD (uPBSC, HR 0.10, P = 0.024; uBM, HR 0.13, P = 0.007). 

Investigators concluded that careful steroid reduction or additional treatment for cGVHD was necessary for patients transplanted with uBM and uPBSC.  

Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12185-024-03866-1