Evaluation Of Graft Versus Host Disease And Relapse Free Survival As Novel Endpoint In Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Retrospective Joint Naples-Paris Study

The cure of hematologic disorders by allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is often associated with major complications resulting in poor outcome, including acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), relapse and death. Classical endpoints such as overall survival (OS), desease free survival (DFS) and non relapse-mortality (NRM) had become more and more unsuitable for transplant research because of their inability to a dynamic mesure of transplant-associated comorbidity. For this reason several composite endpoints taking into account also GVHD-associated comorbidity were proposed in the last years. GVHD free/relapse free survival (GRFS), proposed by Holtan et al (Blood 2015), includes grades 3-4 acute GVHD, systemic therapy requiring chronic GVHD, primary disease relapse , or death for any cause considered as events. This endpoint seems to completely characterize the survival without mortality or ongoing morbidity.