Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018133 (graft-versus-host disease)
 18,032 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Conventional chemotherapy for multiple myeloma results in low complete response rates, and disease progression usually occurs within a couple of years. High-dose chemotherapy with autotransplantation, which has been shown to result in encouraging complete remission rates over several years in phase II studies, was recently shown in a randomized study to be superior to conventional therapy. Eventual tumor recurrence is a problem after autografting, and the development of novel maintenance chemotherapy or immunotherapy strategies is necessary to eliminate minimal residual disease. Although allogeneic transplantation cures a small proportion of patients, high transplant-related mortality and relapse rates hamper survival. Development of novel conditioning regimens and means to harness the graft-versus-myeloma effect without the associated morbidity of graft-versus-host disease are necessary to improve success rates. Supportive therapy, mainly bisphosphonates to delay progression of bone disease and improve bone density and erythropoietin to improve hemoglobin levels, also plays an important role in the overall management. This article reviews therapeutic advances in multiple myeloma from the 1996 literature.
 ...
PMID:Advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma. 926 58

We found earlier that high-dose chemotherapy with Allo-SCT produced a tumor response in patients with chemorefractory metastatic breast cancer. In this study, we examined the efficacy and toxicity of nonmyeloablative allogeneic PBSC transplantation in patients with chemosensitive metastatic breast cancer. Twelve patients with metastatic breast carcinoma who had stable disease after standard-dose chemotherapy and six who had a partial response underwent allogeneic transplantation. The conditioning regimen consisted of reduced-intensity fludarabine and melphalan. All patients achieved engraftment and hematopoietic recovery. Nine patients developed grade II or higher acute GVHD; seven of these nine responded to immunosuppressive therapy. Fourteen patients developed chronic GVHD. The treatment-related mortality rate was 11%. With a median follow-up of 565 days, the median survival duration was 643 days and the median progression-free survival duration was 202 days. Two patients are alive with a complete response 1555 and 2526 days after SCT, and one patient is alive with progressive bone disease at day 1118. We conclude that among patients with chemotherapy-sensitive metastatic breast cancer, a fraction will achieve a durable complete response after SCT with a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen. The question remains how to improve the overall efficacy and reduce the mortality rate for this approach.
 ...
PMID:Prolonged disease control by nonmyeloablative allogeneic transplantation for metastatic breast cancer. 1944 81

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are promising candidate cells for immunomodulation therapy that are currently being tested in the preclinical and clinical setting. MSCs suppress the immune response in a variety of in vitro and disease models and may thus be of benefit for patients suffering from autoimmune disorders or transplant rejection. The mechanism by which MSCs modulate the immune response is still under thorough investigation, but it most likely involves expression of local factors such as indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and others as well as interactions with dendritic or antigen-presenting cells. Although MSCs have been evaluated in clinical phase I and II studies for graft-versus-host disease and heart, kidney, and bone disease, their introduction into solid organ transplantation is still eagerly awaited. In this short review, we summarize the current understanding of immunomodulation achieved by MSC therapies and introduce a possible outline for a clinical study that will use MSCs in the context of a calcineurin inhibitor-free induction protocol after liver transplantation.
 ...
PMID:Mesenchymal stem cells as immunomodulators after liver transplantation. 1979 Jan 54

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells with the ability of proliferation, regeneration, conversion to differentiated cells and producing various tissues. Stem cells are divided into two categories of embryonic and adult. In another categorization stem cells are divided to Totipotent, Multipotent and Unipotent cells.So far usage of stem cells in treatment of various blood diseases has been studied (such as lymphoblastic leukemia, myeloid leukemia, thalassemia, multiple myeloma and cycle cell anemia). In this paper the goal is evaluation of cell therapy in treatment of Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer, Stroke, Spinal Cord Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Radiation Induced Intestinal Injury, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Liver Disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Bone Disease, Renal Disease, Chronic Wounds, Graft-Versus-Host Disease, Sepsis and Respiratory diseases. It should be mentioned that some disease that are the target of cell therapy are discussed in this article.
 ...
PMID:Stem cell therapy in treatment of different diseases. 2235 76