title: Incidence of graft-versus-host disease in Hong Kong Chinese and its influence on survival after bone marrow transplantation from HLA-identical siblings.
abstract: Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is an important complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). To assess its influence on transplant outcome, we studied 90 Chinese patients with hematologic disorders with BMT from HLA-identical siblings. GVHD prophylaxis consisted of a combination of methotrexate (MTX) and cyclosporine A (CsA). The incidence of grade II-IV acute GVHD was 29% (95% CI 19-38%). The incidence of limited and extensive chronic GVHD was 30% (95% CI 20-40%). For patients transplanted for early hematologic malignancy (n = 40), those with GVHD (acute and/or chronic) had lower relapse rate (17% (95% CI 0-36%) vs. 54% (95% CI 26-82%), P = 0.043). They had higher transplant-related mortality (12% (95% CI 0-28%) vs. 6% (95% CI 0-18%), P = 0.715) and event-free survival (EFS) (73% (95% CI 53-93%) vs. 43% (95% CI 17-69%), P = 0.104) that had not reached statistical significance. For patients transplanted for advanced hematologic malignancy (n = 37), those with GVHD also had lower relapse rate (5% (95% CI 0-15%) vs. 72% (95% CI 50-94%), P = 0.002) and higher transplant-related mortality (50% (95% CI 27-73%) vs. 8% (95% CI 0-24%), P = 0.006) than those without any GVHD. They had higher EFS (47% (95% CI 24-70%) vs. 26% (95% CI 5-47%), P = 0.609) that had not reached statistical significance. Therefore, the incidence of acute and chronic GVHD in Chinese was similar to that of their Caucasian counterparts using MTX and CsA for GVHD prophylaxis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Queen Mary Hospital BMT Center, Department of Medicine, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: E K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Hawkins
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lie
authors.forename: Y L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Kwong
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000208:ethnology*; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome