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Imatinib as a Potential Treatment for Sclerodermatous Chronic Graft-vs-Host Disease

2008; American Medical Association; Volume: 144; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1001/archderm.144.9.1106

1538-3652

Juan A. Moreno-Romero,

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Research

The Cutting Edge: Challenges in Medical and Surgical Therapeutics Chronic graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) remains the most common late complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), despite improvements in its prophylaxis.Although the graft-vsleukemia effect associated with the development of chronic GVHD may be beneficial in controlling the underlying disease, patients with chronic GVHD are prone to fatal infections owing to multiple abnormalities of their reconstructed immune systems.Infection is the most common cause of death in patients with chronic GVHD.Chronic GHVD may also compromise a patient's quality of life as a result of long-term immunosuppressive therapy and the symptoms of GVHD itself.Chronic GVHD appears to be one of the major determinants in the survival and quality of life of patients after allogeneic HSCT. 1 Sclerodermatous GVHD is a rare form of chronic GVHD, with a prevalence of approximately 3% in patients who have received allogeneic bone marrow transplants.Sclerodermatous GVHD may be generalized or localized.Generalized forms cause considerable functional disability because of reduced mobility.Mortality may be approximately 20% to 40%, owing to extracutaneous involvement, although some series have shown reduced mortality in cases of sclerodermatous GVHD as a result of an enhanced graft-vs-tumor effect. 2