Graft-versus-host disease in rhabdomyosarcoma following transfusion with nonirradiated blood products.

Graft-versus-host disease is a complication of transfusion of nonirradiated blood products into an immunocompromised patient, and it has been reported in hematologic and lymphoid malignancies as well as in neuroblastoma in children. We report the first case of acute graft-versus-host disease in a child undergoing chemotherapy for a rhabdomyosarcoma, who received transfusions during an intercurrent illness. The graft-versus-host disease was accompanied by an allogeneic lymphoid graft and was diagnosed on the basis of HLA studies on the patient's and her family's circulating lymphocytes and confirmed by HLA typing of the patient's skin fibroblasts.