scholarly journals A Novel Clinical Risk Factor Based Scoring System to Predict the Severity of Acute Graft Versus Host Disease and Steroid Response in Resource Constrained Settings

Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 29-29
Author(s):  
Shiva Kumar Komaravelli ◽  
Nataraj K S ◽  
Shilpa Prabhu ◽  
Bharath RAM S ◽  
Hamza Yusuf Dalal ◽  
...  

INTRODUCTION Acute Graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is a common complication of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), affecting about 50% of transplants. Grading of aGVHD can serve a variety of purposes, including retrospective assessment of peak severity, real-time assessment of severity at prespecified time points, and determination of the need for treatment. But several problems hamper the application of grading systems to predict outcomes among patients with aGVHD: (1) Assignment of a peak GVHD score is done retrospectively; clinicians cannot use the current grading system for peak score in real-time1. (2) The systems do not account for the time to the response after treatment1. (3) Assignment of grade IV GVHD is often used to indicate that GVHD caused a death, irrespective of the severity. In this situation, the grading reflects the outcome and cannot be used to predict the outcome1. Recently serum biomarkers have emerged as an additional potential measurement of acute GVHD severity. The Mount Sinai Acute GVHD International Consortium (MAGIC) Group, has validated MAGIC algorithm probability (MAP) that combines two GI biomarkers (ST2 and REG3α) into a single value. The MAP predicts response to treatment, GVHD severity. But in resource-limited settings, like transplant centers in India lack testing features. In this study we have developed a risk scoring based on clinical and easily available biochemical parameters to predict the severity of aGVHD. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To predict the aGVHD severity at the onset based on risk factor score. To assess the steroid response in different risk groups MATERIAL AND METHODS The study included patients who underwent allogeneic HCT at Narayana hrudayalaya hospital, between January 2015 and April 2020 and developed acute GVHD within 100 days of transplant. After taking institutional ethics committee approval, data were collected from medical records. Baseline patient characteristics are mentioned in table 1. The following parameters were analyzed as risk factors for the development of severe GVHD (MAGIC grade 3 and 4): 1. Age >18 yrs, 2. MDR organisms in baseline stool culture, 3. HCT comorbidity index >1, 4. Peripheral blood as a source of stem cells, 5. Female to male transplants, 6. Myeloablative regimens, 7. Suboptimal GVHD prophylaxis, 8. CD34 dose > 6 x 106/kg, 9. Grade 3/4 mucositis 10. Early-onset GVHD (within 28 days), 11. Albumin level at the onset of GVHD, 12. Albumin drop from baseline3, and 13. Bloodstream infection. Risk factors with a p-value of <0.05, were given score 2 and score 1 was given to other parameters. The total score ranged from 0 to 17. The study population was divided into 3 groups (Group 1 with score 0-4, Group 2 with score 5-7, Group 3 with score > 8). The following outcomes were assessed in each group; severity of GVHD (Grade I/II vs Grade III/IV) and response to steroids. RESULTS Out of 148 patients, 35.5% of Group 1, 56.5% of Group 2 patients and 85.5% of Group 3 patients developed Grade 3 or 4 GVHD respectively (P-value <0.001). Positive predictive value of score > 8 to predict Grade 3/4 GVHD is 85.4%, negative predictive value is 50.6%, sensitivity is 50.5%, and specificity is 85.5%. From Group 1 and 2, only 30% of patients were steroid non responders, while 55.3% of Group 3 patients are steroid non responders (P-value - 0.04). CONCLUSION Traditional GVHD scoring systems reflect the outcome and cannot be used to predict the outcome. Various biomarker-based scoring systems are helpful in this situation, but in resource-limited settings, it might not be easily feasible. Clinical scoring systems like risk factor-based scoring systems are very helpful, which can predict the severe GVHD at early time points leading to management decisions such as upfront initiation of aggressive treatments and earlier introduction of second-line agents. References Leisenring WM, et al. An acute graft-versus-host disease activity index to predict survival after hematopoietic cell transplantation with myeloablative conditioning regimens. Blood. 2006;108(2):749-55. 2.Rashidi A, et al. Peritransplant Serum Albumin Decline Predicts Subsequent Severe Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease after Mucotoxic Myeloablative Conditioning. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2016;22(6):1137-41. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 5017-5017
Author(s):  
Edward A. Copelan

Abstract Tissue injury resulting from preparative therapy for transplantation is integral to the development of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) according to current theory. If toxicity to normal tissues is a critical factor in the pathophysiology of GVHD, greater degrees of regimen related toxicities should be associated with a higher incidence and greater severity of GVHD. We analyzed 438 patients who underwent allogeneic transplantation from related (n=360) or unrelated (78) donors and who survived > 100 days following transplantation. Patients had received preparative regimens of BuCy (n=340) or BuCyVP16 (n=98). Median age was 36 (range 4–66). There were 263 males and 175 females. This cohort survived a median of 35 months (range 3 months to 20 years). Sixty-eight of these patients had developed (Bearman) grade 3-4 regimen related toxicities. These patients had a 50% incidence of acute GVHD > grade II and a 26% incidence of developing GVHD ≤ grade II, compared to significantly lower incidences of 33% (P=.01) and 14% (P=.02) respectively in the group experiencing < grade 3 regimen related toxicity. Exclusion of patients whose GVHD prophylactic regimens were significantly altered because of toxicity did not significantly influence these results. This data suggest that patients who develop severe regimen related toxicity are significantly more likely to develop severe acute GVHD, supporting a potential pathophysiologic role for tissue injury in the development of acute GVHD.


Blood ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1265-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
DS Bross ◽  
PJ Tutschka ◽  
ER Farmer ◽  
WE Beschorner ◽  
HG Braine ◽  
...  

Abstract To identify predictive parameters for incidence and severity of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), 136 patients, transplanted with histocompatible marrow as therapy for aplastic anemia and hematologic malignancies, were examined using univariate and multivariate analyses. The risk of GVHD increased in patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (p less than 0.05), in sex-mismatched donor-recipient pairs (p less than 0.01), and in patients older than 23.7 yr (p less than 0.05). No other commonly observed factors appeared to have any relationship to GVHD except the presence of certain alleles. The presence of a Cw4 allele or of the Bw21 specificities B49 and B50 were associated with significantly increased risks of GVHD (p less than 0.05), whereas the presence of Aw19 (or the related specificities A29, Aw30, Aw31 , Aw32, Aw33 ) was associated with a significantly decreased risk (p less than 0.01). Using these factors, a regression equation can be constructed that estimates the risk of a given patient to develop clinically significant acute GVHD.


Blood ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 80 (7) ◽  
pp. 1838-1845 ◽  
Author(s):  
RA Nash ◽  
MS Pepe ◽  
R Storb ◽  
G Longton ◽  
M Pettinger ◽  
...  

Abstract Previous studies of risk factors for acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) involved patients receiving predominantly single-agent prophylaxis. Therefore, a retrospective analysis was performed on 446 patients, from a single institution, who received transplants of marrow from HLA-identical siblings and the combination of cyclosporine (CSP) and methotrexate (MTX) to determine risk factors for acute GVHD associated with this more effective form of GVHD prophylaxis. The incidences of Grades II-IV and Grades III-IV (severe) acute GVHD were 35% and 16%, respectively. Increased clinical grades of acute GVHD in patients without advanced malignant disease were associated with a decreased survival. In a multivariate Cox regression analysis, risk factors associated with the onset of Grades II-IV acute GVHD were sex mismatch and donor parity (P = .001), increased dose of total body irradiation (TBI) (P = .001), and reduction to less than 80% of the scheduled dose of MTX (P = .02) or CSP (P = .02). The multivariate analysis indicated a relative risk of 1.37 for acute GVHD in a group defined as having advanced malignant disease at transplant; however, this difference failed to reach conventional levels of statistical significance (P = .07). Reduction of MTX and CSP occurred in up to 36% and 44% of patients, respectively, primarily because of renal or hepatic dysfunction. The periods of increased risk for the onset of acute GVHD were up to 1 week after a reduction of MTX and 2 weeks after a reduction in CSP. When only patients who developed Grades II-IV acute GVHD were considered, the more severe acute GVHD of Grades III-IV was associated with increased patient age of 40 years or greater (P = .05) and dose reductions of CSP (P = .008). Serologic status of patient and donor for cytomegalovirus (CMV), HLA antigens in the A and B loci, and isolation in a laminar air flow room during marrow transplantation, all previously identified as risk factors for acute GVHD, were not confirmed as risk factors in this study population. The toxicity of MTX and CSP and the development of acute GVHD from inadequate immunosuppression because of dose reduction warrants further trials with potentially less toxic immunosuppressive agents. Risk factors for acute GVHD should be considered in clinical management and in the design of clinical trials.


Blood ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 108 (11) ◽  
pp. 5304-5304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Le Blanc ◽  
Francesco Frassoni ◽  
Lynne Ball ◽  
Edoardo Lanino ◽  
Berit Sundberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from adult bone marrow have the capacity to differentiate into several mesenchymal tissues and inhibit T-cell alloreactivity in vitro. Within the EBMT MSC expansion consortium we have used MSC to treat grades III–IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in 40 patients. The MSC dose was median 1.0 (range 0.4–9) 10^6 cells/kg body weight of the recipient. No side-effects were seen after MSC infusions. Nineteen patients received one dose, 19 patients received two doses, two patients received three and five doses respectively. MSC donors were in five cases HLA-identical sibling donors, 19 haploidentical donors and 41 third-party HLA-mismatched donors. Among the 40 patients treated for severe acute GvHD, 19 had complete responses, nine showed improvement, seven patients did not respond, four had stable disease and one patient was not evaluated due to short follow-up. Twenty-one patients are alive between six weeks up to 3.5 years after transplantation. Nine of these patients have extensive chronic GvHD. One patient with ALL has recurrent leukaemia and one patient has denovo AML of recipient origin. We conclude that MSC have immunomodulatory and tissue repairing effects and should be further explored as treatment of severe acute GvHD in prospective randomized trials.


Blood ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 124 (21) ◽  
pp. 5807-5807
Author(s):  
Fiona C. He ◽  
Daniel J. Weisdorf ◽  
Erica D. Warlick ◽  
Jeffrey S. Miller ◽  
Shernan G. Holtan ◽  
...  

Abstract Donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) is an option for relapsed hematologic malignancies following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We analyzed the incidence and manifestations of acute graft versus host disease (GVHD) in patients with malignant and non-malignant conditions treated with DLI. At the University of Minnesota, we gave 171 DLI to 120 patients from 1995-2013. The cumulative incidence of grade II-IV acute GVHD was 31.6% (CI 25-42%,n = 40); grade III-IV 23.3% (CI 16-32%,n = 29). GVHD after DLI (n = 46) included involvement of skin in 70% (n = 32), lower gastrointestinal (GI) 65% (n = 30), upper GI 43% (n = 20), and liver 35% (n = 16). Patients receiving chemotherapy prior to DLI (chemo-DLI) had more frequent acute GVHD and GI GVHD. Significant risk factors for grade II-IV acute GVHD included: age > 40, chemo-DLI, malignant disease, and time from HCT to DLI < 200 days. Response to treatment of acute GVHD at 8 weeks was complete in 40% and complete/partial in 52%. Patients developing GVHD had frequent disease response. In chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients, responses were excellent (80%) with or without GVHD. The CR rate was 34% for non-CML malignancies; only 9% achieved CR without acute GVHD. Non-malignant diseases showed poor prognosis following acute GVHD and good prognosis without. Overall survival at 2 years for CML patients was similar (83% vs 79%, p = 0.89) with or without grade II-IV acute GVHD, but in non-CML malignancies survival was better in absence of acute GVHD (41% vs 22%, p = 0.04). We observed frequent, yet therapy-responsive acute GVHD following DLI. DLI often induced remission in CML, but less so for non-CML malignancies without chemo-DLI, particularly in absence of acute GVHD. Improvements in DLI efficacy and GVHD management are still needed. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (35) ◽  
pp. 5735-5741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Dean ◽  
Terry Fry ◽  
Crystal Mackall ◽  
Seth M. Steinberg ◽  
Fran Hakim ◽  
...  

Purpose Morbidity from acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) limits the success of allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) to treat malignancy. Interleukin-7 (IL-7), the principal homeostatic cytokine for T cells, is required for acute GVHD in murine models. In contrast to inflammatory cytokines (eg, IL-2, tumor necrosis factor α), IL-7 has not been studied extensively in the clinical transplant setting relative to its relationship with acute GVHD. Patients and Methods We evaluated the association of serum IL-7 levels with acute GVHD in 31 patients who were uniformly treated in a prospective clinical trial with reduced-intensity allogeneic HSCT from human leukocyte antigen–identical siblings. GVHD prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine and methotrexate. Serum IL-7 levels and lymphocyte populations were determined at enrollment, the day of transplantation before the allograft infusion, and at specified intervals through 12 months post-transplantation. Results As expected, IL-7 levels were inversely correlated with T-cell populations (P < .00001). Acute GVHD was significantly associated with higher IL-7 levels at day +7 (P = .01) and day +14 (P = .00003) post-transplantation as well as with the allograft CD34+ cell dose (P = .01). IL-7 levels at day +14 also correlated with the severity of acute GVHD (P < .0001). In logistic regression models, these factors were highly sensitive (up to 86%) and specific (100%) for classifying whether patients developed acute GVHD. Conclusion These data support preclinical observations that IL-7 plays a critical role in inducing acute GVHD and provide a rational basis for novel approaches to prevent and treat acute GVHD through modulation of the IL-7 pathway.


Blood ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 117 (11) ◽  
pp. 3214-3219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. D. Flowers ◽  
Yoshihiro Inamoto ◽  
Paul A. Carpenter ◽  
Stephanie J. Lee ◽  
Hans-Peter Kiem ◽  
...  

Abstract Risk factors for grades 2-4 acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and for chronic GVHD as defined by National Institutes of Health consensus criteria were evaluated and compared in 2941 recipients of first allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation at our center. In multivariate analyses, the profiles of risk factors for acute and chronic GVHD were similar, with some notable differences. Recipient human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatching and the use of unrelated donors had a greater effect on the risk of acute GVHD than on chronic GVHD, whereas the use of female donors for male recipients had a greater effect on the risk of chronic GVHD than on acute GVHD. Total body irradiation was strongly associated with acute GVHD, but had no statistically significant association with chronic GVHD, whereas grafting with mobilized blood cells was strongly associated with chronic GVHD but not with acute GVHD. Older patient age was associated with chronic GVHD, but had no effect on acute GVHD. For all risk factors associated with chronic GVHD, point estimates and confidence intervals were not significantly changed after adjustment for prior acute GVHD. These results suggest that the mechanisms involved in acute and chronic GVHD are not entirely congruent and that chronic GVHD is not simply the end stage of acute GVHD.


Blood ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 124 (21) ◽  
pp. 2491-2491 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Reshef ◽  
James K. Mangan ◽  
Selina M. Luger ◽  
Alison Wakoff Loren ◽  
Elizabeth O. Hexner ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Blocking lymphocyte trafficking after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) may prevent graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) without interfering with graft-versus-tumor (GvT) activity. We previously reported that brief (up to day+30) CCR5 blockade using maraviroc (MVC, Pfizer) after reduced-intensity conditioned (RIC) alloSCT resulted in a low incidence of acute GvHD and absence of early liver and gut GvHD, although delayed GvHD still occurred. We designed a phase II study to test the hypothesis that extended administration of MVC would be feasible, safe and provide protection against late-onset GvHD without impairing immune reconstitution or GvT responses. Patients and Methods: In April 2013 we initiated a 37-patient (pt) phase II study to test an extended course of MVC in recipients of RIC alloSCT from unrelated donors. Pts receive fludarabine 120 mg/m2 and busulfan i.v. 6.4 mg/kg followed by peripheral blood stem cells. MVC 300 mg b.i.d. is orally administered from day -3 to day +90 in addition to standard prophylaxis with tacrolimus and methotrexate. The primary endpoint is the cumulative incidence of grade 2-4 acute GvHD by day 180. As of July 2014 we enrolled 20 pts at high risk for transplant-related toxicity by virtue of age (median=64, range 55–72), donor source (matched unrelated 80%, single-antigen mismatch unrelated 20%) or comorbidities (comorbidity index: low 15%, intermediate 35%, high 50%). Underlying diseases were AML (16), MDS, MPD, ALL and CTCL (1 each). Feasibility and Safety: The median follow-up on surviving patients is 5.7 months. The 3-month course of MVC was well tolerated with no increased toxicity; two pts did not complete their treatment due to early disease relapse and one patient discontinued therapy due to a skin reaction with eosinophilia where the histological features favored a drug reaction and the attribution to MVC was possible. Postural hypotension, a known dose-dependent toxicity, was observed in one pt who completed the course with a 50% dose reduction. Engraftment and Immune Reconstitution: The median time to ANC>500/μL was 12 d (range 10-21) and platelets>20k/μL was 14 d (range 9-28). The median whole blood and T-cell donor chimerism levels at day 100 were 95% (range 12–100%) and 80% (range 23–94%) respectively, which are similar to historical rates. Median CD4 counts on day 30 were 341 (range 206-424). Only 3/16 evaluable pts had Ig levels<500 mg/dL in the first 100 days. GvHD: Sixteen pts are evaluable with > 3 mo of follow-up. The day-180 cumulative incidence rates (± s.e.) of grade 2-4 and grade 3-4 acute GvHD are 25 ± 11% and 6 ± 6% respectively (Fig. 1). Of patients who developed acute GvHD in the first 180 days, there have been no cases of liver GvHD, 2 cases of stage 1 steroid-responsive gut GvHD and 1 case of severe diarrhea with combined features of GvHD and leukemic infiltrates in the gut. These results are comparable to the GvHD rates in our phase I/II MVC study (grade 2-4: 23.6% and grade 3-4: 5.9%), which included related and unrelated donor transplants. These results also compare favorably with a 45% day-180 acute GvHD rate seen in similar patients treated with our standard GvHD prophylaxis alone. Notably, there has been no treatment-related mortality. Five patients have relapsed at a median of 2.6 months post-transplant (range 0.93 – 3.5), which is similar to our historical rates after RIC alloSCT. PD analysis: We developed a phosphoflow assay to assess in real-time the activity of MVC in fresh blood samples. The assay quantifies the activation of CCR5 by measuring the phosphorylation of C-terminal serine residues as a result of CCL4 stimulation. In 15 evaluable patients, we observed diminished pCCR5 levels with CCL4 stimulation on day 0 as compared to day -6 (Fig. 2). In summary, our preliminary results support the feasibility, safety and protective activity of the CCR5 antagonist MVC against acute GvHD, with preferential activity against visceral GvHD. Continued pt enrollment and follow-up are ongoing. Updated safety, efficacy and PD results will be presented. A multi-center study (BMT-CTN 1203) will be initiated later this year to further clarify the role of this novel strategy in improving the outcome of alloHSCT. Fig 1. Cumulative Incidence of Acute GvHD Fig 1. Cumulative Incidence of Acute GvHD Fig 2. Phosphoflow shows CCR5 unresponsiveness to CCL4 stimulation on day 0 Fig 2. Phosphoflow shows CCR5 unresponsiveness to CCL4 stimulation on day 0 Disclosures Reshef: Pfizer: Research Funding. Off Label Use: Maraviroc for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 4968-4968
Author(s):  
Maki Takabayashi ◽  
Heiwa Kanamori ◽  
Hirotaka Takasaki ◽  
Satoshi Yamaji ◽  
Hideyuki Koharazawa ◽  
...  

Abstract We monitored interleukin-4 (IL-4), interferon-gamma (IFN-g), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a)-secreting cells using an enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay in a prospective study to assess the cytokine network after transplantation. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from 23 patients who received allogeneic stem cell transplantation, from before the preconditioning regimen to 56 days after transplantation. The frequency of IL-4-secreting cells was significantly higher in 5 patients receiving peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) than that in 18 patients who received bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Based on IFN-g and TNF-a release, there was a trend toward a decrease in the number of cytokine-secreting cells in PBSCT. Furthermore, patients who did not develop acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD, n = 5) showed a significantly higher number of IL-4-secreting cells compared with those who developed acute GVHD (n = 18). These results indicate that the high percentage of IL-4-secreting cells may be responsible for the inhibition of acute GVHD. In addition, the increased percentage of IL-4-secreting cells may be responsible for the unexpected low incidence of acute GVHD in PBSCT, despite the presence of large numbers of mature T cells in the donor infusion.


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