title: Extra corporeal photochemotherapy in steroid refractory graft versus host disease: A review of guidelines and recommendations.
abstract: Regardless of remarkable progresses in prevention and treatment approaches, graft versus host disease (GVHD) remains a major impediment for successful allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells transplantation (HSCT) and leads to morbidity and mortality in transplanted patients. Corticosteroids are the standard therapy for GVHD; however, a great number of patients will not respond sufficiently and others will be significantly affected by adverse effects of steroids. Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP), as one of the numerous second line therapies, through modulation of immune cells may improves GVHD affected organ function in steroid-refractory forms. Considering to widespread utilization of ECP as a therapeutic strategy, we performed review on current literature of ECP, regarding the treatment strategies, monitoring protocols and technical aspects in chronic and acute GVHD.
authors.affiliation: Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.affiliation: Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ashraf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malek Mohammadi
authors.affiliation: Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Amir Hossein
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Norooznezhad
authors.affiliation: Transfusion Medicine Units, Cochin Hospital, Paris, France. Electronic address: farhad@heshmati.org.
authors.forename: Farhad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Heshmati
authors.affiliation: Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kamran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alimoghaddam
authors.affiliation: Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ardeshir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghavamzadeh
mesh_terms: D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D006287:Health Planning Guidelines; D006801:Humans; D010778:Photochemotherapy / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Extracorporeal photochemotherapy; Graft versus host disease; Steroid refractory