Background
Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a treatment with great but not fully realized potential. The ability to achieve immunoregulatory effects without immunosuppression is the main advantage of ECP. However, in the clinical practice the possibility of using ECP is limited, due to the need for leukapheresis. Therefore, for more than 20 years, attempts have been made to perform ECP without the use of leukapheresis, by obtaining a sufficient number of leukocytes for a therapeutic effect, namely the mononuclear fraction, from small doses of whole blood [1-3].
In the past we experienced extremely difficult clinical cases: severe refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and severity of the patients’ illness. We have therefore developed a new method of therapy – micro-ECP, for compassionate use.