TY - JOUR
T1 - Narrowband UV-B phototherapy in the treatment of cutaneous graft versus host disease
AU - Grundmann-Kollmann, Marcella
AU - Martin, Hans
AU - Ludwig, Ralf
AU - Klein, Stefan
AU - Boehncke, Wolf Henning
AU - Hoelzer, Dieter
AU - Kaufmann, Roland
AU - Podda, Maurizio
PY - 2002/12/15
Y1 - 2002/12/15
N2 - Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is an important problem following allogenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). The beneficial effects of photochemotherapy with psoralens plus UVA irradiation (PUVA) have been described repeatedly; however, PUVA is limited by a wide range of unwanted effects. A novel improved form of UV-B phototherapy, narrowband UV-B, has been proven to be very effective in T-cell mediated dermatoses. Therefore, we investigated the effect of narrowband UV-B phototherapy (5 times per week) in 10 patients with cutaneous GVHD (grade 2-3) resistant to standard immunosuppressive drugs. It was tolerated well by all patients, and no side effects were observed. Skin lesions showed complete clearance in 7 out of 10 patients within 3 to 5 weeks. 3 patients showed significant improvement of GVHD. We suggest that narrowband UV-B phototherapy is a nonaggressive treatment that may benefit patients with cutaneous GVHD who already take high doses of immunosuppressive drugs.
AB - Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is an important problem following allogenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). The beneficial effects of photochemotherapy with psoralens plus UVA irradiation (PUVA) have been described repeatedly; however, PUVA is limited by a wide range of unwanted effects. A novel improved form of UV-B phototherapy, narrowband UV-B, has been proven to be very effective in T-cell mediated dermatoses. Therefore, we investigated the effect of narrowband UV-B phototherapy (5 times per week) in 10 patients with cutaneous GVHD (grade 2-3) resistant to standard immunosuppressive drugs. It was tolerated well by all patients, and no side effects were observed. Skin lesions showed complete clearance in 7 out of 10 patients within 3 to 5 weeks. 3 patients showed significant improvement of GVHD. We suggest that narrowband UV-B phototherapy is a nonaggressive treatment that may benefit patients with cutaneous GVHD who already take high doses of immunosuppressive drugs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037115130&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/00007890-200212150-00023
DO - 10.1097/00007890-200212150-00023
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 12490799
AN - SCOPUS:0037115130
SN - 0041-1337
VL - 74
SP - 1631
EP - 1634
JO - Transplantation
JF - Transplantation
IS - 11
ER -
