|
|
Blood, 15 July 2006, Vol. 108, No. 2, pp. 756-762.
Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on March 21, 2006; DOI 10.1182/blood-2006-01-0233.
Previous Article | Table of Contents | Next Article 
TRANSPLANTATION
Rituximab for steroid-refractory chronic graft-versus-host disease
Corey Cutler,
David Miklos,
Haesook T. Kim,
Nathaniel Treister,
Sook-Bin Woo,
Don Bienfang,
Lloyd B. Klickstein,
Jesse Levin,
Katherine Miller,
Carol Reynolds,
Rebecca Macdonell,
Mildred Pasek,
Stephanie J. Lee,
Vincent Ho,
Robert Soiffer,
Joseph H. Antin,
Jerome Ritz, and
Edwin Alyea
From the Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; the Department of Ophthalmology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; the Department of Rheumatology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA; and the Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
B cells may be implicated in the pathophysiology of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), as evidenced by antibody production against sex-mismatched, Y chromosomeencoded minor HLA antigens in association with chronic GVHD. We therefore designed a phase 1/2 study of antiB-cell therapy with rituximab in steroid-refractory chronic GVHD. Twenty-one patients were treated with 38 cycles of rituximab. Rituximab was tolerated well, and toxicity was limited to infectious events. The clinical response rate was 70%, including 2 patients with complete responses. Responses were limited to patients with cutaneous and musculoskeletal manifestations of chronic GVHD and were durable through 1 year after therapy. The median dose of prednisone among treated subjects fell from 40 mg/day to 10 mg/day, 1 year after rituximab therapy (P < .001). A chronic GVHD symptom score improved in the majority of treated patients. Antibody titers against Y chromosomeencoded minor HLA antigens fell and remained low, whereas titers against infectious antigens (EBV, tetanus) remained stable or rose during the treatment period. We conclude that specific antiB-cell therapy with rituximab may be beneficial for patients with steroidrefractory chronic GVHD. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00136396
[ClinicalTrials.gov]
.

CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:

|
 |

|
 |
 
K. Matthews, Z. Lim, B. Afzali, L. Pearce, A. Abdallah, S. Kordasti, A. Pagliuca, G. Lombardi, J. A. Madrigal, G. J. Mufti, et al.
Imbalance of effector and regulatory CD4 T cells is associated with graft-versus-host disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a reduced intensity conditioning regimen and alemtuzumab
Haematologica,
July 1, 2009;
94(7):
956 - 966.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
D. Daoussis, S.-N. C. Liossis, A. C. Tsamandas, C. Kalogeropoulou, A. Kazantzi, C. Sirinian, M. Karampetsou, G. Yiannopoulos, and A. P. Andonopoulos
Experience with rituximab in scleroderma: results from a 1-year, proof-of-principle study
Rheumatology,
May 15, 2009;
(2009)
kep093v1.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
S. Sarantopoulos, K. E. Stevenson, H. T. Kim, C. S. Cutler, N. S. Bhuiya, M. Schowalter, V. T. Ho, E. P. Alyea, J. Koreth, B. R. Blazar, et al.
Altered B-cell homeostasis and excess BAFF in human chronic graft-versus-host disease
Blood,
April 16, 2009;
113(16):
3865 - 3874.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
M. Christopeit, V. Schutte, S. Theurich, T. Weber, W. Grothe, and G. Behre
Rituximab reduces the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease
Blood,
March 26, 2009;
113(13):
3130 - 3131.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. S Bates, A. M. Engemann, and J. M Hammond
Clinical Utility of Rituximab in Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Ann. Pharmacother.,
February 1, 2009;
43(2):
316 - 321.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
P. Armand, S. Gannamaneni, H. T. Kim, C. S. Cutler, V. T. Ho, J. Koreth, E. P. Alyea, A. S. LaCasce, E. D. Jacobsen, D. C. Fisher, et al.
Improved Survival in Lymphoma Patients Receiving Sirolimus for Graft-Versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation With Reduced-Intensity Conditioning
J. Clin. Oncol.,
December 10, 2008;
26(35):
5767 - 5774.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
A. Shimabukuro-Vornhagen, T. Liebig, and M. von Bergwelt-Baildon
Statins inhibit human APC function: implications for the treatment of GVHD
Blood,
August 15, 2008;
112(4):
1544 - 1545.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
H. Fujii, G. Cuvelier, K. She, S. Aslanian, H. Shimizu, A. Kariminia, M. Krailo, Z. Chen, R. McMaster, A. Bergman, et al.
Biomarkers in newly diagnosed pediatric-extensive chronic graft-versus-host disease: a report from the Children's Oncology Group
Blood,
March 15, 2008;
111(6):
3276 - 3285.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
S. Sarantopoulos, K. E. Stevenson, H. T. Kim, N. S. Bhuiya, C. S. Cutler, R. J. Soiffer, J. H. Antin, and J. Ritz
High Levels of B-Cell Activating Factor in Patients with Active Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Clin. Cancer Res.,
October 15, 2007;
13(20):
6107 - 6114.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
J. W. Semple
Rituximab disciplines T cells, spares platelets
Blood,
October 15, 2007;
110(8):
2784 - 2785.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
D. A. Jacobsohn, A. R. Chen, M. Zahurak, S. Piantadosi, V. Anders, J. Bolanos-Meade, M. Higman, J. Margolis, M. Kaup, and G. B. Vogelsang
Phase II Study of Pentostatin in Patients With Corticosteroid-Refractory Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease
J. Clin. Oncol.,
September 20, 2007;
25(27):
4255 - 4261.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|

|
 |

|
 |
 
M. Y. Mapara
Stimulating results with stimulatory antibodies
Blood,
July 1, 2007;
110(1):
6 - 7.
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
 |
|
|
|