[Etanercept on steroid-refractary acute graft-versus-host disease]

Objetive: To describe etanercept use and effectiveness on steroid- refractary acute graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Patients treated with etanercept as off label use for steroid-refractary acute graft-versus-host disease were selected and each patient's medical history was reviewed to assess the clinical response.

The study included five patients: four presented with digestive manifestations and one presented pulmonary and liver manifestations. 80% of patients showed a clinical response: 60% a partial response and 20% a total response. In four cases etanercept 25mg was administered twice a week with variable duration of treatment, achieving no response in 1 case (3 weeks), partial response in two 2 cases (4 weeks and 8 weeks) and a complete response in 1 case (8 week period). Only one case was treated with etanercept 50mg administered twice a week for 5 weeks with a partial treatment response.

The clinical response rate is consistent with the previously published data. This updates the scarce bibliographic information about etanecept use in steroid-refractary acute graft-versus-host disease. Due to clinical design limitations and the small patient population, future clinical studies should be conducted to assess the efficacy and security of etanercept in these patients.