Rituxan question -can anyone help please?

[Guest guest]

Would be very grateful to hear of any experiences, good and bad, with

the biologic Rituxan (rituximab), and especially if you are someone

with a complicated medical history, suffering other illness along

side the RA. This is on behalf of my friend, 60, who has active RA

despite DMARDs, (1 year plus since onset) She has a history since

childhood of bronchiectasis/ asthma,suffering chest and ear

infections and sinusitis.She also seems to have FMS. Although her

specialist had mentioned Rituxan initially, he now seems to think

risks of overwhelming infection would be very great.He has only used

it in a handful of patients, those without lung problems.

Interestingly I have used this drug in the oncology field,(chiefly

lymphoma) where my impression was of a powerful but effective

agent,generally safe, and a very valuable recent addition to the

armamentarium to fight disease. However of course that is a different

scenario.

It needs time and numbers to build a sufficient data base of

experience for such new drugs and their risk/benifit in complicated

cases. Here in the UK we necessarily lag behind so any imput from you

would be really appreciated. My friend is despondent in her present

state but also scared stiff.

Sorry this is so long

Thanks Chris

retired doc UK