Antonio Pagliuca is Professor of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation at King's College London (UK) and medical director at King's College Hospital where, until last year, he had been the transplant director for the past 24 years. He also has roles within NHS England as national clinical lead for regenerative medicine and is a trustee on both the Anthony Nolan trust (London, UK) and Leukemia UK (London, UK). Here he speaks to Commissioning Editor Jennifer Straiton and discusses the interim results of the DEFIFrance study, recently presented at the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant (EBMT), which looked at the real-world use of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant severity grading criteria. The study investigates the use of defibrotide as a treatment of patients with post-transplant hepatic veno-occlusive disease and demonstrates how it can benefit from early intervention.