ChookityPop
Senior Member
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And improved? Or not improved? for autoimmunity or other health issues.
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About a quarter of the patients taking the drug in the phase III trial experienced a “serious adverse event” which required hospitalization, but because 19% of the placebo group also experienced a “serious adverse event”, the vast majority of which also required hospitalization, the drug didn’t appear to be causing significant problems. The authors concluded that “few (of the) serious adverse events had a suspected or probable relation to the study drug.”
Patients received induction treatment with 2 infusions, 2 weeks apart, of either rituximab (MabThera, Roche), 500 mg/m2 of body surface area (maximum of 1000 mg), or an equal volume of saline with added human albumin (Flexbumin [Baxalta] or Albunorm [Octapharma]), 0.4 mg/mL, to ensure no visible difference from the active comparator. In the maintenance phase, patients received a 500-mg fixed dose of rituximab or an equal volume of saline with human albumin at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. One hour before infusions, all patients received premedication with 1 g of oral acetaminophen, 10 mg of cetirizine, and 8 mg of dexamethasone (Supplement 1).
Wow.AND dexamethasone.
Even Saline is a bit of an issue for control where 50% of the patients likely have POTS since it will treat it to an extent. To use anything as control for ME/CFS you really have to establish its null impact compared to doing nothing and I suspect nothing is the only null for us because the mere act of an infusion involves a lot of exertion.In addition, the placebo was NOT saline, which isn't mentioned in the abstract. They used Tylenol, Zyrtec, AND dexamethasone.
It was @Learner1. Her amazing doc utilized a very smart protocol in the RIGHT order — first testing for and clearing infections, second giving her IVIG to correct her CVID and then (and ONLY then) giving her Rituximab — interspersed w IVIG at the same time if i recall correctly to protect against any immune system issues / susceptibility to infections that might happen w the Rituximab.
This is definitely off-label.
Apparently a German oncology doctor seems to be trying rituximab for mecfs and longcovid. However, I don't know whether this is in a study or off label.