Graft-Versus-Host Disease

This book summarizes current state-of-the-art knowledge as well as the latest scientific developments in pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention and therapy of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) which contin-ues to be a major source of morbidity and mortality fol-lowing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Approaches for GVHD risk assessment prior to allogeneic HCT, including genetic and proteomic screening, new concepts for modulation of GVHD by regulatory cellular components and a detailed description of the recently developed diagnostic and staging criteria for chronic GVHD are discussed in detail, providing an excellent overview for clinicians for their daily practise as well as the opportunity to define areas of ongoing active search in the field of GVHD. Important differences between adult and pediatric patients are described, focusing on improvement of both diagnosis and therapy of children suffering from GVHD. Besides the use of new immunosuppressive agents for the treatment of GVHD, an excellent overview on the use of extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is given, allowing immunomodulation with almost no side effects and the advan-tage of steroid sparing.