Pre-Transplant Hepatic Steatosis (Fatty Liver) Predicts Chronic Graft-Vs-Host Disease But Does Not Affect Mortality

Introduction: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HCT) remains the only curative treatment for many hematologic conditions. However, significant mortality risk and risk of severe graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) limit its usefulness. Some patient characteristics such as performance status are used routinely as prognostic markers for poor outcomes after transplant. Steatohepatitis is a metabolic dysfunction manifesting as increased hepatic adiposity and resulting inflammation. A pre-clinical murine study suggests steatohepatitis is associated with GvHD. We assessed whether pre-HCT hepatic steatosis was associated with risk of developing GvHD and post transplant mortality.