Evaluation of Safety & Efficacy for the Prevention of Ocular GVHD With Ophthalmic Tacrolimus vs Cyclosporine in Allo-HSCT

Summary

Chronic GVHD (cGVHD) is a predominant cause of mortality and disability not related to relapse; it occurs in 30 to 70% of patients. The majority of patients with cGVHD present with ocular involvement with a reported incidence of 40-60%. Symptoms can range from mild dry eye syndrome to severe epithelial defects that can generate corneal perforation and loss of vision. The most accepted pharmacological modality is the topical application of cyclosporine A; on the other hand, tacrolimus has shown greater immunosuppressive power when used in ocular GVHD. However, this effectiveness is limited since by the time the manifestations appear, there is already permanent damage to the lacrimal gland due to the lymphocytic infiltration; so it is necessary to use a prevention strategy before these manifestations appear. Previously, the employment of ocular cyclosporine drops as ocular GVHD prophylaxis was assessed to evaluate safety and effectiveness, showing that it is well tolerated and can limit the appearance of severe dry eye manifestations in a small group of patients. The purpose of this work is to compare the two modalities currently accepted for the treatment of the disease, but in a prophylactic way; topical ciclosporin A against topical tacrolimus, to determine the safety and efficiency of each of them as a preventive measure to limit the risk of developing the appearance of ocular cGVHD and the permanent consequences that this generates.

Timeline

Start

2023-08-01

Primary completion

2025-12-31

Completion

2025-12-31

Publications

• Background Jagasia MH, Greinix HT, Arora M, Williams KM, Wolff D, Cowen EW, Palmer J, Weisdorf D, Treister NS, Cheng GS, Kerr H, Stratton P, Duarte RF, McDonald GB, Inamoto Y, Vigorito A, Arai S, Datiles MB, Jacobsohn D, Heller T, Kitko CL, Mitchell SA, Martin PJ, Shulman H, Wu RS, Cutler CS, Vogelsang GB, Lee SJ, Pavletic SZ, Flowers ME. National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Project on Criteria for Clinical Trials in Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease: I. The 2014 Diagnosis and Staging Working Group report. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2015 Mar;21(3):389-401.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2014.12.001. Epub 2014 Dec 18.
• Results Cantu-Rodriguez OG, Vazquez-Mellado A, Gonzalez-Trevino JL, Martinez-Garza DM, Gomez-De Leon A, Hawing-Zarate JA, Jaime-Perez JC, Gutierrez-Aguirre CH, Garza-Acosta AC, Mancias-Guerra C, Gonzalez-Llano O, Gonzalez-Cantu GA, Herrera-Rojas MA, Sada-Ovalle I, Gomez-Almaguer D. Cyclosporine A for the Prevention of Ocular Graft versus Host Disease in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients Is Safe and Feasible. Acta Haematol. 2020;143(5):425-431. doi: 10.1159/000502405. Epub 2019 Sep 10.
• Results Jung JW, Lee YJ, Yoon SC, Kim TI, Kim EK, Seo KY. Long-term result of maintenance treatment with tacrolimus ointment in chronic ocular graft-versus-host disease. Am J Ophthalmol. 2015 Mar;159(3):519-27.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2014.11.035. Epub 2014 Dec 9.

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