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Rituximab May Help Pediatric Patients with SLE

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The authors acknowledge that the studies reviewed had a wide range of rituximab regimens and concomitant treatments, which likely accounted for the wide range in median time to relapse. They conclude the review by calling for further investigation of rituximab as a new therapy for pSLE. “Although numerous clinical trials of biological therapy have been conducted in adults with SLE, few studies have been conducted in children, and none of these were randomized controlled trials,” they note.

“In our review, [rituximab] appeared to be safe,” they explain, stating that “adverse events were noted in 21% of patients.”

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Lara C. Pullen, PhD, is a medical writer based in the Chicago area.

Reference

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  1. Mahmoud I, Jellouli M, Boukhris I, et al. Efficacy and safety of rituximab in the management of pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic review. J Pediatr. 2017 Jun 8. pii: S0022-3476(17)30618-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2017.05.002. [Epub ahead of print]

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