Management of Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is an immune-mediated disorder that adversely affects quality of life and clinical outcomes in patients following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Conventional treatment of GVHD includes prolonged and high-dose corticosteroids; however, those drugs are associated with multiple side effects. This article describes the ability of extracorporeal photopheresis therapy to exhibit a steroid-sparing effect, which can reduce long-term complications as a consequence of steroid treatment.