Advances in the treatment of graft-versus-host disease

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a complicated disease whose treatment requires an equally multifaceted approach. Recipient conditioning, donor T cell activation, and end stage effectors all may be potential targets for treatment. Many drugs used in the past are returning to the forefront for investigation. Some of the newer nucleoside analogs that are in various stages of development, such as fludarabine and pentostatin, are showing promising activity in GVHD.