A drug combination can safely prevent transplanted stem cells (graft) from attacking the recipient’s (host) body, allowing them to develop into healthy new blood and immune cells, a new study shows.
Researchers say stem cell transplantation, especially from members of the same family, has transformed the treatment of leukemia, a disease that afflicts nearly a half-million Americans. And although the treatment is successful for many, half of those who undergo the procedure experience some form of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). This happens when the newly implanted immune cells recognize their host’s body as “foreign” and then target it for assault, much like they would an invading virus.
Most cases of GvHD are treatable, but an estimated one in 10 can be life-threatening. For this reason, researchers say, immune-suppressing drugs are used to prevent GvHD by the donated cells, and patients, who are mostly unrelated, are matched whenever possible with donors beforehand to make sure their immune systems are as similar as possible.
Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, the new and ongoing study showed that a new regimen of immune-suppressing drugs, cyclophosphamide, abatacept, and tacrolimus, better addressed the problem of GvHD in people being treated for blood cancer.
“Our preliminary results show that using abatacept in combination with other immune-suppressing drugs is both safe and an effective means of preventing GvHD after stem cell transplantation for blood cancers,” says study lead investigator and hematologist Samer Al-Homsi, MD, MBA. “Signs of GvHD with abatacept were minimal and mostly treatable. None were life-threatening,” says Al-Homsi, a clinical professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Perlmutter Cancer Center.
Al-Homsi, who also serves as director of the blood and marrow transplant program at NYU Langone and Perlmutter Cancer Center, is presenting the team’s findings online Dec. 13 at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting in Atlanta.