Dr. Cutler on Optimizing Treatment for Acute and Chronic GVHD

Corey S. Cutler, MD, MPH, FRCPC, medical director, Adult Stem Cell Transplantation Program, director of Clinical Research, Stem Cell Transplantation, director, Stem Cell Transplantation Survivorship Program, institute physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses methods to optimize treatment for patients with acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

Optimizing management of acute GVHD requires a lot of attention to supportive care measures that go along with the treatment of patients with severe acute GVHD, including bowel rest, total parenteral nutrition, or antibiotics for the prevention of infection, explains Cutler. Specialists in different departments can be consulted in the care of these patients. For example, colleagues working in dermatology or the burn unit can help with the management of patients with GVHD who are severely affected, and hepatology colleagues can help patients who have affected livers, suggests Cutler.

Patients with chronic GVHD have access to many more supportive care measures. Patients are offered local care of individually affected organs, such as topical care of the eye, mouth, skin, or the gastrointestinal tract, says Cutler. Addressing these local needs for chronic GVHD is just as important as the systemic therapies used to treat patients, concludes Cutler.