Long-awaited news for hepatic veno-occlusive disease.

In this issue of Blood, Palomo et al provide new insight into the mechanism of action of defibrotide as an endothelial protective agent, while Richardson et al present the encouraging final results of the phase 3 clinical study of defibrotide for the treatment of severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), showing a 23% improvement in day +100 survival after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) compared with historical control.