About Graft-Versus-Host Disease
HSCT provides a potentially curative option for some types of cancer, but it comes with the
risk of GVHD. GVHD occurs when the transplanted immune system attacks the recipient’s body and is the
leading cause of non-cancer death in stem cell transplant recipients. Roughly half of HSCT recipients
develop GVHD.
There are two kinds of GVHD, acute (aGVHD) and chronic (cGVHD). Onset of aGVHD is typically
within the first 100 days post-transplant and occurs in 30 – 70% of transplant recipients. Half of those
individuals will go on to develop cGVHD, and an additional 30 – 70% develop cGVHD independently.
GVHD is caused by the activation and trafficking of pathogenic T cells, which then go on to
attack healthy tissue. Itolizumab, which is designed to treat GVHD by preventing this aberrant T cell
activity, is currently being evaluated in a clinical trial.