Cyclosporine induced syngeneic graft-vs-host disease: An immunotherapeutic approach after autologous bone marrow transplantation

Cyclosporine (CsA) treatment following autologous and/or syngeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) results in the induction of an autoimmune syndrome similar to graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic BMT. This autoimmune process which generally occurs 14–28 days following discontinuation of CsA treatment is termed syngeneic GVHD. We evaluated if syngeneic GVHD could provide an immunotherapeutic advantage to eliminate residual tumor cells after autologous/syngeneic BMT in a rat myeloma model. The results indicated that syngeneic GVHD did provide an anti-tumor effect in this rat model and could be potentiated by administration of recombinant gamma interferon. Based on these results several clinical trials have been initiated.