A FDA-approved drug, Rituxan, presently used to treat non-Hodgkin’s B cell lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis holds the potential of an effective option for severe ANCA-associated vasculitis as well.

Rituxan works as well as cyclophosphamide at least in terms of getting patients into remission, according to Robert Spiera, M.D., an associate attending rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

The finding was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Philadelphia.

From Sciencedaily.com:

In the current study, nine centers enrolled a total of 197 patients with severe Wegener’s granulomatosis or microscopic polyangiitis, two of the more common types of ANCA-associated vasculitis. Patients were given steroids and randomized to receive either the standard treatment with cyclophosphamide or Rituxan given at a dose of 375 mg/m2 weekly for four weeks. Investigators used the standard tools to assess disease status and remission. The study was rigorously designed and was double-blinded, meaning that neither patient nor doctor knew which drug individuals were getting.

At the time of the data analysis, 84 of the 99 (85%) patients in the Rituxan arm and 81 of the 98 patients (83%) in the cyclophosphamide arm had completed six months of follow-up. Investigators found that the treatments were equally effective in putting patients into remission and that, in fact, the treatment outcomes looked slightly better in patients receiving Rituxan (64% vs. 55%). This difference, however, was not considered statistically significant (P=0.21).

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (specifically the Immune Tolerance Network through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) and the trial was partially supported by Biogen-Idec.