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Late GI Issues in Allo-HCT Recipients Evaluated

Biol Blood Marrow Transplant; ePub 2017 Dec 12; Sung, et al

Publish date:

Nearly 1 in every 5 allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT) recipients experienced late gastrointestinal (GI) complications that necessitated exploratory endoscopy in a retrospective analysis involving 392 individuals. Most had GI-related graft versus host disease (GVHD). Participants underwent allo-HCT at a single center over a 6-year period and survived at least 100 days post-transplant. Investigators assessed the need for endoscopic evaluation, GI-GVHD diagnosis, overall survival, and non-relapse mortality. Among the results:

  • 18% of patients underwent endoscopy.
  • Of these, nearly two-thirds had GI-GVHD.
  • Of patients with GI-GVHD, 87% had late acute GVHD, 2% chronic GVHD, and 11% overlap disease.
  • Among patients without GVHD, symptoms were mainly infectious and inflammatory in nature.
  • Histological findings of apoptosis on the tissue specimen and having diarrhea highly predicted GI-GVHD.
  • Patients who underwent endoscopy survived a median of 8.5 months after the procedure.
  • 6-month non-relapse mortality rates in patients with and without GI-GVHD were 31% and 19%, respectively.

Citation:

Sung A, Hassan S, Cardona D, et al. Late gastrointestinal complications of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in adults. [Published online ahead of print December 12, 2017]. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. doi:10.1016/j.bbmt.2017.12.772.

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