Does the effectiveness of rituximab infusions wane over time?

[jaybee00]

Hello,

I know that that the CFS symptoms can reappear after a certain time period following an infusion, but when patients are infused again, is the rituximab still as effective after 10 years of infusions as it is in the first couple of infusions? Any data from RA?

Thank you.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

When I retired we had up to 12 years follow up on RA cases and my colleagues would now have up to 19 year follow. For a minority of cases repeated rituximab usage has to be discontinued, mostly because of a gradual fall in protective antibody levels. For most patients repeated usage seems fine - and there does not seem to be any loss of efficacy. I heard last week that one of our patients who must now be about 85 is still doing well after 18 years.

 

[cman89]

I am very interested in this also, because having treatments that work , even partially and for some PWME, is wonderful, but as always, we would eventually want to push the arrow towards treatments that are less finite.