How Is Acute GVHD Treated?

The main treatment is

steroids

, which generally work well. Your doctor might also treat you with other drugs to suppress your immune system and so reduce the GvHD. Light therapy with extracorporeal photophoresis can also help.

How long does acute GVHD last?

ECP for acute GvHD responds quite quickly, whereas ECP for chronic GvHD can take six months or more before any improvement. In some cases, treatment can last

12–18 months or longer

.

Can you survive GVHD?

Chronic graft-v-host disease (chronic GVHD) is a frequent cause of late morbidity and death after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). The

actuarial survival after onset of chronic GVHD in 85 patients was 42%

(95%Cl = 29%, 54%) at 10 years.

What is the average life expectancy after bone marrow transplant?

Some 62% of BMT patients survived

at least 365 days

, and of those surviving 365 days, 89% survived at least another 365 days. Of the patients who survived 6 years post-BMT, 98.5% survived at least another year.

Can GVHD be cured?

Chronic GVHD is treatable

— usually, patients are treated first with corticosteroids, but those also come with their own set of side effects.

How often is GVHD fatal?

Chronic GVHD affects approximately 30% to 80% of patients surviving 6 months or longer after stem cell transplantation and is the leading cause of nonrelapse deaths

occurring more than 2 years after transplantation

.

What triggers GVHD?

GvHD happens

when particular types of white blood cell (T cells) in the donated stem cells or bone marrow attack your own body cells

. This is because the donated cells (the graft) see your body cells (the host) as foreign and attack them.

Is GVHD serious?

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is

a potentially serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation and reduced-intensity allogeneic stem

cell transplantation. During allogeneic stem cell transplantation, a patient receives stem cells from a donor or donated umbilical cord blood.

What happens if a bone marrow transplant fails?

Graft failure can

lead to serious bleeding and/or infection

. Graft failure is suspected in patients whose counts do not start going up within 3 to 4 weeks of a bone marrow or peripheral blood transplant, or within 7 weeks of a cord blood transplant.

What are the long-term side effects of a bone marrow transplant?

• Infertility, meaning you cannot become pregnant or make a woman pregnant when you want to.
• Cataracts, an eye condition that causes cloudy vision.
• Sexual side effects and early menopause.
• Thyroid problems.
• Lung or bone damage.
• Another cancer.

What are the stages of GVHD?

Is graft vs host disease painful?

Acute GVHD disease usually involves a distinct set of clinical symptoms and signs that include dermatitis, or skin inflammation, is characterized by an itchy, red, and possibly

painful rash

.

How is GVHD of the lungs treated?

Sometimes, doctors

prescribe extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP)

to treat GVHD of the lungs. ECP is a treatment where blood is removed from you, treated with light and then given back to you. Sometimes chronic GVHD of the lungs gets worse even with treatment.

Does GVHD cause fatigue?

Patients with severe GVHD after allogeneic SCT (i.e. grades III and IV, acute GVHD or extensive chronic GVHD) may experience many acute and chronic medical problems, are treated with several drugs and other therapies, which may influence an unstable clinical balance and

may provoke fatigue

.

Can GVHD affect the brain?

Severity of chronic GVHD is staged according to the number of organ manifestations and the severity of organ involvement (Filipovich et al., 2005). Neurological manifestations of chronic

GVHD are rare and can affect both the peripheral and central nervous system

(PNS and CNS) (Openshaw, 2009).

What is the difference between acute and chronic GVHD?

By definition, acute GVHD is any reaction that occurs within the first 100 days after transplant, and

chronic GVHD is reactions that occur after 100 days

.