Freya Wenzel

Ms. Freya Wenzel


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

6Years (2021-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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30 May 2021 in Cancers
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
FWFreya Wenzel
Freya Wenzel
APAnne Pralong
Anne Pralong
UHUdo Holtick
Udo Holtick
CSChristoph Scheid
Christoph Scheid
MHMarco Herling
Marco Herling
SSSteffen Simon
Steffen Simon
Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a frequent, and often life-threatening, complication after an allogeneic, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). It can appear in an acute or a chronic form and presents different grades of severity. Particularly, the severe forms of GvHD are often responsible for a change of the curative intent for allo-SCT into a palliative goal of care. For this non-systematic review, we conducted a focused literature search in the MEDLINE database via PubMed to examine whether patients with severe forms of GvHD might have special needs and burdens from a supportive and palliative care perspective. To draw a comprehensive picture of this patient group, we included findings on quality of life (QoL) and physical symptoms and function as well as psychological and spiritual well-being. In most domains, patients with severe forms of GvHD showed greater impairment and a higher symptom burden compared to patients with milder forms of GvHD. However, we could not identify any studies that specifically investigated patients with severe forms of GvHD. Further research in this field is necessary to guarantee the highest standard of care for this very special patient group.