Pharmacy Practice in Focus: Oncology
- October 2025
- Volume 7
- Issue 7
Axatilimab: A New Frontier for Steroid-Refractory Chronic GVHD
Chronic graft-vs-host disease (cGVHD) is the leading cause of late, non-relapse mortality for patients who have undergone an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Axatilimab, which has durable responses and an attractive safety profile, offers a novel mechanism of action for the treatment for patients who have not succeeded with at least 2 prior lines of systemic therapy.
Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) is a curative therapy for many malignant and nonmalignant hematologic disorders in adult and pediatric patients. However, chronic graft-vs-host (cGVHD) disease, a complication that arises after allo-HCT, remains one of the leading causes of late, non-relapse mortality. Patients with cGVHD have increased morbidity, poor quality of life, and increased resource utilization, resulting in higher health care costs.1,2 The incidence of cGVHD occurs in approximately 40% to 70% of patients following allo-HCT, with key risk factors including the degree of human leukocyte antigen disparity, increasing age of recipient, use of peripheral blood stem cells as the stem cell source, myeloablative conditioning regimens, prior acute GVHD, and female donor to male recipient.3