Gastrointestinal pathological changes in stem cell transplant patients

The last 5 years have seen an expansion of knowledge about the gastrointestinal diseases that may present in haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients and also about new gastrointestinal diseases in this patient population.

This article summarizes the recent opinions and findings regarding gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease, and viral and other opportunistic gastrointestinal infections that can develop in HSCT patients. This article also discusses the more newly described entities of mycophenolate-mofetil-related gastrointestinal injury and cord colitis syndrome.

This review emphasizes the need for comprehensive clinical information when assessing gastrointestinal endoscopic biopsies from HSCT patients. It is crucial that both clinicians and histopathologists are aware of several specific but rare gastrointestinal diseases that may develop in these patients, because several of these diseases have specific treatments.