Multicenter Study Of Natalizumab Plus Standard Steroid Treatment For High Risk Acute Graft-Versus-Host Disease

The only proven effective treatment for patients with acute graft vs host disease is steroids. Patients not responding to steroid treatment are at high risk for death. Unfortunately, based on the early symptoms, it is not possible to tell whether a patient will respond to steroids, when GVHD is diagnosed and treatment with steroids, such as prednisone, is started. This research trial is designed to study the safety and effectiveness of combining the study drug, Natalizumab (Tysabri®) with the use of steroids to treat acute GVHD in patients at the earliest stages of clinical symptoms, but, by using a proprietary method developed at the University of Michigan and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, are predicted to be at high risk for not responding to steroid therapy, the standard of care. Investigators at Mount Sinai have developed a research method believed that it might make it possible to predict who is at high risk for not responding to steroids. This method, called Ann Arbor GVHD scoring, uses the levels of naturally occurring chemicals in the blood (called biomarkers) to determine a patient's GVHD score(1, 2, or 3). A hypothesis is that many patients with Ann Arbor score 2 or 3 GVHD, will not respond well to steroid treatment and die within 6 months of their GVHD diagnosis. Most of the deaths are due to intestinal GVHD, which sometimes does not develop, until after standard steroid treatment has already begun. Only patients with Ann Arbor score 2 or 3 GVHD, will be eligible for this study treatment. It is important to understand that Ann Arbor GVHD grading is not approved for clinical use. It can only be used as a test for research purposes. In this study, patients must have their blood tested to determine, if they qualify as Ann Arbor score 2 or 3 GVHD, and must start the study treatment within 3 days of starting systemic steroid treatment for acute GVHD. The study will test whether the investigators can improve steroid response and prevent death from GVHD with the combination therapy, by blocking the donor cells from getting to the intestine and causing damage. Natalizumab (Tysabri®) is a drug that works by blocking the signals that cause immune cells like donor cells, to travel to organs like the intestine or brain. Natalizumab is FDA-approved in adults, to treat Crohn's disease, a chronic condition where immune cells cause damage to the digestive system (such as the stomach, intestines). It is also used to treat multiple sclerosis where immune cells cause damage to the nervous system in the brain. Its intended use is for patients with disease that has not responded to the standard treatment, or cannot tolerate the side effects from standard treatments. Natalizumab has never been used for treating GVHD. It is an experimental drug for this study, because the investigators are investigating a new use for the drug, as a GVHD treatment.