Advancements and New Treatment Options: Optimizing Care for Patients with Graft-vs-Host Disease

Experts on graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) introduce themselves and provide an overview of GvHD, highlighting diagnosis, symptoms, risk stratification, and prevention.

Hematologist-oncologists Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, and Hana Safah, MD, discuss how graft-vs-host disease presents and the importance of early intervention.

Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, discusses the role of prognostic markers in graft-vs-host disease and how they can potentially inform treatment selection.

Hana Safah, MD, reviews the NIH staging system for graft-vs-host disease and discusses the importance of staging in determining prognosis and informing treatment decisions.

Hematologist-oncologists discuss the first-line treatment options for patients with chronic GvHD and the advantages and disadvantages of steroids.

Drs Safah and Cutler discuss treatment practices for patients with steroid-refractory graft-vs-host disease and highlight patients who are steroid dependent.

Hematologist-oncologists give an overview of the 3 approved treatment options for patients with steroid-refractory chronic GvHD—ruxolitinib, ibrutinib, and belumosudil—and highlight the REACH3 and ROCKstar studies.

Drs Cutler and Safah look to the future of chronic GvHD treatment and discuss ongoing research, highlighting studies investigating axatilimab and abatacept.

Hana Safah, MD, and Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, conclude with clinical insights on addressing medication access and the supportive care needs of patients with GvHD.