title: Narrowband UV-B phototherapy in the treatment of cutaneous graft versus host disease.
abstract: Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is an important problem following allogenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). The beneficial effects of photochemotherapy with psoralens plus UVA irradiation (PUVA) have been described repeatedly; however, PUVA is limited by a wide range of unwanted effects. A novel improved form of UV-B phototherapy, narrowband UV-B, has been proven to be very effective in T-cell mediated dermatoses. Therefore, we investigated the effect of narrowband UV-B phototherapy (5 times per week) in 10 patients with cutaneous GVHD (grade 2-3) resistant to standard immunosuppressive drugs. It was tolerated well by all patients, and no side effects were observed. Skin lesions showed complete clearance in 7 out of 10 patients within 3 to 5 weeks. 3 patients showed significant improvement of GVHD. We suggest that narrowband UV-B phototherapy is a nonaggressive treatment that may benefit patients with cutaneous GVHD who already take high doses of immunosuppressive drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Theodor Stern Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grundmann-Kollmann
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ludwig
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Wolf-Henning
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Boehncke
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoelzer
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Podda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004351:Drug Resistance; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014467:Ultraviolet Therapy / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents