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Hi. I have been perusing these forums for a while, but haven't posted as my situation is a lot different from most. However I feel like I can maybe offer an experience and some information that can help.
I had kidney failure and needed a kidney transplant. I live in Baltimore, so of course I went to Hopkins. Anyways, long story short, I ended up in a trial that combined a mini (non-myleoblative) halpo BMT with a kidney transplant. Both the kidney and the marrow were from my wonderful mother. The idea behind it is I will hopefully not need life-long immunosuppressants for the kidney, since my new immune system will recognize the kidney as self.
I had the double transplant on Feb 4th 2014. I did get acute grade II skin GVHD that was successfully treated with high dose prednisone. For the haplo transplants they use high dose cytoxan on day 3 and 4 post to limit the effects of GVHD, and have had good results with it.
I also saw someone mention Prochymal for the treatment of GVHD. I actually happen to work for the company that developed it. It is only approved in Canada, but has been fast tracked by the FDA in the US. It is available in the US to children right now as a last resort. At the end of 2013 my company sold Prochymal to Mesoblast. It has been successful at treating GVHD, but it is not a miracle drug and doesn't work for everyone.
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