Graft-versus-host disease following bone marrow transplantation: clinical feature and diagnosis

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) offers the hope of curing heretofore untreatable disease. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a complication of this medical progress which impedes application of marrow grafting a wider range of hematologic disorders. This report describes the clinical and pathologic features of GVHD and presents the clinical grading system for acute GVHD based on degree of target organ involvement. We report an acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patient relapsed after allogeneic BMT, who received an infusion of donor buffy coat and achieved complete remission of ALL with GVHD. This finding may be due to graft-versus-leukemia effect.