Naïve T-cell depletion to prevent chronic graft-versus-host disease

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) occurs in 30% to 60% of patients with leukemia who receive allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation and is a major source of morbidity and mortality. Naïve T-cells cause severe GVHD in murine models. Pooled analysis of three phase II trials found that depletion of naïve T-cells from peripheral blood stem-cell allografts results in very low incidences of severe acute and any chronic graft-versus-host disease, without apparent excess risks of relapse or nonrelapse mortality, distinguishing this novel graft engineering strategy from other hematopoietic transplantation approaches.