Rituximab effect in severe progressive connective tissue disease-related lung disease: preliminary data

Rituximab in the Treatment of Interstitial Lung Disease Associated with Autoimmune Diseases: Experience from a Single Referral Center and Literature Review

“…Furthermore, the majority of patients achieved a radiological ILD stabilization or improvement, and patients with HRCT images of progression did not have clinical repercussions. This was in line with previous similarly designed studies [ 20 , 45 ]. Consequently, this management may have some influence in the natural history/ILD progression in AD-ILD patients.…”

“…A comprehensive updated literature review about the outcome of lung function and HRCT of patients with AD-ILD treated with rituximab is shown in Table 3 . Former retrospective cohorts’ studies of RTX treatment in heterogeneous AD-ILD groups, like ours, have described an acceptable evolution of PFTs and lung HRCT patterns [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 20 , 45 , 48 ]. Our series showed an FVC stabilization during 24 months of follow-up, which was in line with the results of Lepri et al [ 17 ], whereas a relevant increase in FVC at 6–12 months was reported by other authors [ 16 , 18 , 20 , 45 ].…”

“…This finding was in keeping with Robles-Perez et al findings. In this regard, these authors reported an improvement of DLCO after 12 and 24 months of RTX treatment [ 20 ]. As reported by Chartrand et al [ 48 ], we found no differences in PFTs evolution throughout the follow-up, according to UIP or NSIP HRCT patterns.…”

“…Patients were diagnosed and followed-up by the same group of clinicians. Given the proven RTX efficacy in several types of AD-ILD [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], we included patients with different underlying ADs. All patients had received RTX at some point during their disease course.…”

“…Besides corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide and mycophenolate mofetil are the most widely used drugs among the conventional immunosuppressive drugs [ 14 ]. Rituximab (RTX), a chimeric (human/murine) monoclonal antibody against the surface antigen CD20, expressed on pre-B and B lymphocytes, has shown efficacy in the treatment of patients with AD-ILD, even as a rescue alternative in severe and refractory cases [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ].…”