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Rituximab for Systemic Sclerosis Scleroderma - Improved Mobility?
I have systemic sclerosis - diagnosed 4 years ago. Since then, I was treated with Methotrexate followed by Cellcept, then Actemra, Humira, and finally autologous CD34 stem cell transplant for Scleroderma (at Duke), which did not work.
Currently, my skin thickening and arthritis are progressing. My rheumatologist is not sure if Rituximab would make a difference, as he does not have experience of this drug in systemic sclerosis.
If you have been treated with Rituximab for systemic sclerosis, please share your experience. Any detail is important: skin response, ILD response, inflammatory arthritis response, neuropathy response, duration of treatment, for how long you had fatigue post infusion, and any other side effects.
The main questions are - did Rituximab improve your mobility? What kind of improvements do you have post Rituximab?
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Rituximab is mainly indicated in Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is prescribed off label in Systemic Sclerosis, as it did show some efficacy with improving symptoms of skin thickening and Interstitial Lung Disease ILD.
Many scleroderma patients have reduced mobility. If you had Rituximab administered for SSc, please share your response to the drug, its effect on mobility, and your overall experience, e.g. for how long fatigue lasted post infusions, and any other side effects.
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1 Reaction@altabiznet there are numerous articles that can be accessed through google scholar. I only read the highlights and then it got to be too confusing for me. The following 2 articles are a sample.
https://academic.oup.com/mr/article-abstract/33/6/1068/7117735
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1567576920301648
One article highlighted a chemotherapy drug for use on SSc, but it is a very toxic drug and you really don’t want it. I had about 8 cycles of it and ended up in the ER after the 1st one.