Intra-arterial catheter directed therapy for severe graft-versus-host disease

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), resulting in death in the majority of steroid-resistant patients. We assessed the efficacy of regional intra-arterial treatment in patients with resistant hepatic and/or gastrointestinal (GI) GVHD. In total, 15 patients with steroid resistant grade 3-4 hepatic (n = 4), gastrointestinal (GI) (n = 8) GVHD or both (n = 3) were given intra-arterial treatment. Patients with hepatic GVHD received methotrexate and methylprednisolone into the hepatic artery. Patients with GI GVHD were treated with infusions of methylprednisolone into the superior and inferior mesenteric arteries. Two patients with pronounced upper GI symptoms also received upper GI treatment. In total, 25 procedures were carried out (range 1-3 per patient). Hepatic response was observed in four out of seven (57%) patients with hepatic GVHD, three (43%) featuring good response. Complete responses were observed in nine (82%) GI GVHD patients, with median time to initial and complete response of 3 d (range 1-7) and 15.8 d (range 4-33) respectively. Regional treatment of severe GVHD with intra-arterial treatment appears to be effective and safe. GI treatment maybe more effective than intrahepatic treatment. Early administration of isolated intra-arterial therapy in high-risk patients may further improve the outcome and reduce untoward effects of systemic immunosuppressive treatment.