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)

The use of supralethal chemoradiotherapy followed by marrow transplantation has progressed from being an experimental approach applied only to a limited number of end-stage patients to an important therapeutic option appropriate for many adults with a variety of hematologic malignancies. With the use of transplantation, 10% to 30% of patients with relapsed leukemia and approximately 50% of patients with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia in first remission can be cured. Cures have also been seen in a variety of other hematologic malignancies, including chronic granulocytic leukemia, preleukemia, hairy cell leukemia, and malignant lymphoma. Transplantation is currently limited by the need for a suitable marrow donor; by the complications of the transplant procedure, including infection, graft-versus-host disease, and the toxicities of intensive chemoradiotherapy; and by the risk of recurrent disease. Some of these limitations will likely be overcome as a result of current research. The use of partially matched family members and matched unrelated donors will make transplantation available to more patients. Some forms of posttransplant infection, including those associated with herpes simplex and cytomegalovirus, can now be prevented or treated. Improved methods of controlling graft-versus-host disease including T-cell depletion of marrow and the use of more effective immunosuppressive agents, as well as a better understanding of the toxicities of the preparative regimens, are making the transplant procedure safer and more tolerable. Finally, the development of better preparative regimens and transplantation earlier in the patient's disease course will likely allow for a larger percentage of patients to be cured.
 ...
PMID:Treatment of acute leukemia in adults with chemoradiotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. 388 38

Recently various cytokines have been introduced into the clinic and have played important therapeutic roles in the treatment of hematological malignancies. Among these cytokines, I have focused on interferon (IFN) and granulocyte (G) or granulocyte-macrophage (GM) colony stimulating factor (CSF), which are currently the most useful cytokines, in this review. IFN-alpha has been approved for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), multiple myeloma and hairy cell leukemia. In addition, IFN-alpha has therapeutic potentials for low grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cutaneous T cell lymphoma and adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma. Thus, IFN-alpha is one of the most useful and wide-ranging antitumor agents in hematological malignancies. Most striking effects have been studied in chronic phase CML. Cytogenetic responses are seen in 30-40% of the treated patients and a complete cytogenetic response can be seen in about 10%. Long-term survival can be expected in these patients. Considering the risk of graft-versus-host disease-associated mortality in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, the category of treatment is difficult to choose in IFN-responsive patients. Elucidation of the antitumor mechanism of IFN, as a prototype for other biological response modifiers, may revolutionize cancer treatment. G- and GM-CSF (CSFs) have reduced the duration of neutropenia, incidence of infectious episodes and days of hospitalization following cancer chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation. CSFs have also been used to mobilize peripheral blood stem cells and to increase dose intensity of chemotherapeutic agents. Leukemic cells from many patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) have surface receptors for CSFs and may proliferate in response to CSFs. However, several randomized studies showed that CSFs can be used safely and effectively in augmenting neutrophil recovery in patients with AML when given after induction chemotherapy. Various trials have been made to prime leukemic cells by CSFs to make them more susceptible to chemotherapy, but no convincing evidence has been obtained.
 ...
PMID:Cytokine therapy for hematological malignancies. 899 Jun 22