Fatal rituximab-associated lung injury syndrome in a patient treated with rituximab for recurrence of post-transplant nephrotic syndrome

Clinical practice recommendations for recurrence of focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis/steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome

Recurrence of primary disease is one of the major risks for allograft loss after pediatric RTx. The risk of recurrence of FSGS/SRNS after pediatric RTx in particular can be up to 86% in idiopathic cases. There is a need for consensus recommendations on its prevention and treatment. The CERTAIN study group has therefore performed a thorough literature search based on the PICO model of clinical questions to formulate educated statements to guide the clinician in the process of decision-making. A set of educated statements on prevention and treatment of FSGS/SRNS after pediatric RTx has been generated after careful evaluation of available evidence and thorough panel discussion. We do not recommend routine nephrectomy prior to transplantation; neither do we recommend abstaining from living donation. Special attendance needs to be given to those patients who had already experienced graft loss due to FSGS/SRNS recurrence. Early PE or IA with or without high-dose CsA and/or rituximab seems to be most promising to induce remission. The educated statements presented here acknowledge that FSGS/SRNS recurrence after pediatric RTx remains a major concern and is associated with shorter graft survival or even graft loss. The value of any recommendation needs to take into account that evidence is based on cohorts that differ in ethnicity, pre-transplant history, immunosuppressive regimen, definition of recurrence (eg, clinical and/or histological diagnosis) and treatment modalities of recurrence.

Increased toxicities in children with Burkitt lymphoma treated with rituximab: Experience from a tertiary cancer center in India

BACKGROUND

Even though rituximab has emerged as standard of care for the management of high-risk pediatric Burkitt lymphoma (BL), its safety in children from the low-middle-income countries (LMICs) remains to be proven. We herein report our experience of using rituximab in children with BL.

METHODS

All patients diagnosed with BL between January 2015 and December 2017 were treated in a risk-stratified manner with either the modified MCP-842 or modified LMB protocol. Patients with poor response to MCP-842 were switched to the LMB-salvage regimen. In addition, rituximab was given to selected high-risk patients.

RESULT

Forty-two (49.4%) of 85 patients with BL received rituximab. The incidence of febrile neutropenia (90.5% vs 67.4%; P = 0.02), pneumonia (38.1% vs 11.6%; P = 0.005), intensive care unit admissions (54.5% vs 17.6%; P = 0.002), and toxic deaths (26.2% vs 9.3%; P = 0.04) was higher among BL patients who received rituximab. Pneumonia was fatal in 11 of 16 (69%) patients who received rituximab. On multivariate analysis, rituximab continued to be significantly associated with toxic deaths ( OR: 11.45 [95% CI: 1.87-70.07; P = 0.008]). The addition of rituximab to intensive chemotherapy resulted in an inferior one-year event-free survival (49.4% ± 8.1% vs 79.3% ± 6.5%; P = 0.025) and one-year overall survival (63.1% ± 8.5% vs 91.8% ± 4.5%; P = 0.007) with no improvement in one-year relapse-free survival (78.3% ± 7.3% vs 83.9% ± 6.0%; P = 0.817).

CONCLUSION

Rituximab was associated with increased toxicities and toxic deaths in our patients. The potential immunomodulatory effect of rituximab and increased susceptibility to infections in patients from LMICs have to be carefully considered while choosing this drug in the treatment of BL in resource-constrained settings.

Rituximab Use in the Management of Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome

Childhood nephrotic syndrome is a challenging and often persistent renal disorder, and its incidence varies between different ethnicities and regions. Corticosteroids have been the main treatment for decades and are effective in most children with idiopathic NS, although 10-15% of these children become steroid resistant. Furthermore, some initially steroid sensitive children follow a steroid dependent or frequently relapsing course and are therefore at increased risk for developing steroid toxicity. In such children, alternative immunosuppressive medications are used to induce and/or maintain remission of NS. One such drug, rituximab, is a monoclonal antibody directed against the B lymphocyte CD20 marker which induces depletion of B cells, and has shown promising results in the management of NS in children. In this review, we summarize recent studies on the efficacy and safety of rituximab in the different types of childhood nephrotic syndrome, the known and potential mechanisms of action of rituximab, its possible complications and side effects, and the available and potential biomarkers of rituximab activity.

Rituximab is not a "magic drug" in post-transplant recurrence of nephrotic syndrome

Pediatric patients with end-stage renal failure due to severe drug-resistant nephrotic syndrome are at risk of rapid recurrence after renal transplantation. Treatment options include plasmapheresis, high-dose of cyclosporine A/methylprednisolone and more recently-rituximab (anti-B CD20 monoclonal depleting antibody). We report five patients with immediate (1-2 days) post-transplant recurrence of nephrotic syndrome, treated with this kind of combined therapy including 2-4 weekly doses of 375 mg/m(2) of rituximab. Only two (of five) patients have showed full long-term remission, while the partial remission was seen in two cases, and no clinical effect at all was achieved in one patient. The correlation between B CD19 cells depletion and clinical effect was present in two cases only. Severe adverse events were present in two patients, including one fatal rituximab-related acute lung injury.

CONCLUSION

The anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody may be not effective in all pediatric cases of rapid post-transplant recurrence of nephrotic syndrome, and benefit/risk ratio must be carefully balanced on individual basis before taking the decision to use this protocol.

WHAT IS KNOWN

• nephrotic syndrome may recur immediately after renal transplantation • plasmapheresis combined with pharmacotherapy is used as rescue management • rituximab was reported as effective drug both in primary and post-transplant nephrotic syndrome What is New: • rituximab may not be effective is several cases of post-transplant nephrotic syndrome due to variety of underlying mechanisms of the disease, which may be or not be responsive to this drug • there may be no correlation between drug-induced depletion of specific B cells and clinical effect; this might suggest B-cell independent manner of rituximab action.

A mild form of rituximab-associated lung injury in two adolescents treated for nephrotic syndrome

Rituximab is used as a steroid/calcineurin inhibitor-saving agent in patients with nephrotic syndrome. Safety is a crucial issue for justifying widespread use of the drug in this clinical setting. Rituximab-associated lung injury (RALI) is a severe and potentially life-threatening complication in oncohaematological and rheumatological patients, while it has only been anecdotally reported in association with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (2 cases described, 1 with fatal outcome). We describe a benign form of RALI occurring in two adolescents treated with rituximab (single pulse of 375 mg/m(2)) for nephrotic syndrome. Before treatment, the patients were in good clinical condition while receiving a combination of steroids and calcineurin inhibitors (tacrolimus, case 1 and cyclosporine, case 2). The two patients developed full blown RALI (ie, ground-glass lesions on CT, negative bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage and deficit in diffusion lung CO transfer), 14 and 40 days after rituximab infusion, respectively. Recovery was rapid and complete after administering steroids in case 1 and with no therapy in case 2. We conclude that RALI may occur in stable non-immunocompromised patients with nephrotic syndrome and its frequency may be higher than expected. Clinical presentation may be mild and resolve after steroids, suggesting hypersensitivity as the main mechanism. Rapid recognition and prompt steroid therapy, if needed, are mandatory for resolution.