SEATTLE, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. cancer researchers say they've found drugs known as statins might protect stem cell transplant patients from graft-versus-host disease.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientists said their retrospective study involved 567 patients who underwent hematopoietic cell transplantation from matched sibling donors between 2001 and 2007. Patients whose donors had been taking statins at the time of stem cell donation were found to have experienced no severe acute graft-versus-host disease.
The disease, a potential side effect of blood-forming stem cell transplants, involves donor immune cells attacking normal patient cells and tissues. About 15 percent of the stem cell donors in the study were taking statins at the time of transplant.
The study's senior author, Dr. Marco Mielcarek, said between 10 percent and 15 percent of transplant patients would normally be expected to develop severe acute graft-versus-host disease.
Mielcarek, Dr. Marcello Rotta and colleagues report their findings in the journal Blood.
