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Pediatric acute graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis and treatment: Real-life approach reveals dissimilarities compared to published recommendations
Lawitschka, A., Lucchini, G., Strahm, B., Dalle, J. H., Balduzzi, A., Gibson, B., Diaz De Heredia, C., Wachowiak, J., Dalissier, A., Vettenranta, K., et al
Transplant international : official journal of the European Society for Organ Transplantation. 2020
Abstract
Pediatric allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) practices differ from those of adults, particularly the heterogeneity of transplantable non-malignant diseases and the lower incidence of Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GVHD). Several guidelines regarding the management of acute (a) GVHD in adult HCT have been published. We aimed to capture the real-life approaches for pediatric aGVHD prophylaxis/treatment, and data from 75/193 (response rate 39%) EBMT centers (26 countries) were included, representing half (48%) of the pediatric EBMT-HCT activity. Results with ≥75% approval from respondents (74/75) for GVHD prophylaxis after myeloablative HCT for malignancies partially contradict published guidelines: single-agent cyclosporine A (CsA) was used for matched-sibling donor HCT in 47%; blood CsA levels were reported lower; the relapse risk in malignant diseases influenced GVHD prophylaxis with early withdrawal of CsA; distinct longer duration of CsA was employed in non-malignant diseases. Most centers used additional anti-thymocyte globulin for matched-unrelated and mismatched donor HCT, but not for matched-siblings. Regarding prophylaxis in non-myeloablative conditioning (mainly for non-malignant diseases) responses showed broad heterogeneity. High conformity was found for first-line treatment; however, results regarding steroid-refractory aGVHD indicate an earlier diagnosis in children. Our findings highlight the need for standardized pediatric approaches towards aGVHD prophylaxis/treatment differentiated for malignant and non-malignant underlying diseases.
2.
Impact of t-cell depletion strategies on outcomes following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for idiopathic aplastic anemia: A study on behalf of the european blood and marrow transplant (ebmt) saa working party
Samarasinghe, S., Clesham, K., Iacobelli, S., Sbianchi, G., Knol, C., Hamladji, R. M., Socie, G., Aljurf, M., Koh, M., Sengeloev, H., et al
American journal of hematology. 2018
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Abstract
We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of 1837 adults and children with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) who underwent matched sibling donor (MSD) and matched unrelated donor (MUD) haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) between 2000 and 2013. Patients were grouped by transplant conditioning containing either ATG (n=1283), alemtuzumab (n=261) or no serotherapy (NS) (n=293). The risks of chronic GvHD were significantly reduced when ATG or alemtuzumab were compared to no serotherapy (p=0.021 and p=0.003, respectively). Acute GVHD was significantly reduced in favor of alemtuzumab compared to ATG (P=0.012) and no serotherapy (p < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, when compared to ATG, alemtuzumab was associated with a lower risk of developing acute (OR 0.262; 95% CI 0.14-0.47; p<0.001) and chronic GVHD (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.35 - 0.94; p=0.027). OS was significantly better in ATG and alemtuzumab patients compared with no serotherapy (p=0.010 and p=0.025). Our data shows inclusion of serotherapy in MSD and MUD HSCT for patients with SAA reduces chronic GVHD and provides a survival advantage over patients not receiving serotherapy. Notably, alemtuzumab reduced the risk of acute and chronic GvHD compared to ATG and indicates that alemtuzumab might be the serotherapy of choice for MSD and MUD transplants for SAA. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.