Is the composition of gut fungal microbiota a predictor of mortality after allo-transplantation?

The GvHD Hub are proud to present expert interviews directly from the 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in Orlando, US. This interview with Florent Malard, Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, FR, was based on the question: Is the composition of gut fungal microbiota a predictor of mortality after allogeneic transplantation?

Dr Malard discusses the results of a study, presented during the ASH meeting, which found patients undergoing transplant had a low fungal microbiota diversity at day 0. This lack of diversity did not have an impact on outcome, unlike the bacteria microbiota. However, a high presence of Candida albicans at day 0 was associated with lower overall survival and GvHD-free disease-free survival. He concludes that moving forward, it will be important to consider how we integrate this new data into improvements in patient outcome.