Rituximab May Benefit Rheumatoid Lung Save
A single-center, uncontrolled, 10-year follow-up study of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) shows that treatment with rituximab (RTX) in patients with RA-related interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) may forestall ILD progression.
Yuzaiful et al reports the outcomes of an observational study of patients with RA-ILD. They identified 700 RA patients treated with RTX, 56 of whom had RA-ILD (pre-RTX ILD prevalence = 8%).
With the initiation of RTX therapy only 3/700 patients developed ILD (post-RTX ILD incidence = 0.4%).
Lung function tests were improved with RTX therapy, such that median relative changes pre- and post-RTX results were:
| Pre-RTX | {pst-RTX | |
| FVC | -2.4% | +1.2% |
| DLCO | -4.4% | -1.3% |
Clinically ILD was stabilized (52%) or improved (16%) in a majority. Progression was noted in 14 (32%). Progression of ILD was associated with severe ILD prior to RTX (79%). There were 9 deaths (16%) linked to progressive ILD.
This retrospective observational study suffers from not having a control or comparator population. Nonetheless, RTX appears to afford some benefit to RA-ILD patients.
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