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.