GvHD - state of the art

Graft-versus-Host disease is still the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients receiving allogeneic stem cell transplants for haematological malignancies. So far, classical immunosuppressive prophylaxis and treatment have not been improved in the last 10 years, and the best approach to prevent GvHD, T cell depletion, results in a major loss of the central therapeutic effect, the graft-versus-leukemia reactions. With this background and challenge in mind, colleagues from different centers in Europe and the USA started to coordinate their activities in preclinical and clinical research. One of the results is this conference booklet concerning a postgraduate course in Regensburg in September 2003, focussed on GvHD, and a smaller expert meeting focussing on the use of new drugs, especially sirolimus, in November 2003. The idea of small but interactive meetings has been followed by the European School of Hematology (ESH), Paris, for many years. Now this postgraduate course on GvHD has become an ESH activity and will be held in 2005, 2007 and 2009. It is the hope of all participating teachers and speakers that this booklet will be of interest for both, clinicians as well as basic scientists working in the field of stem cell transplantation.