GM Everyone - I want to write of my experience with infusions of a drug called Rituxan. I was diagnosed this past May with lymphoma and a tumor in my spleen. My oncologist started me on an infusion once a week with Rituxan. I was diagnosed with PMR in Dec of 2016 and put on the prednisone protocol starting at 20 mgs and tritating down monthly. The PMR was actually a differential diagnosis of my cancer in my case. (This is not always the case however). My CRP in December of 2016 was up to 82 and my ESR number was very high also. After I finished the 4 rounds of Rituxan on June 15th, my CRP and ESR numbers were less than 5! So the Rituxan reduced my inflammation numbers and this relieved my PMR and also put me in remission for my lymphoma and my tumor was indistinguishable on the cat scans.
Fast forward to today - Aug 28, 2017, and my shoulders are achy, as well as other parts of my body. I am still maintaining my prednisone protocol as per my rheumatologist, and I am on 6 mgs of prednisone about to go to 5 mgs come September. But I feel the PMR presence creeping in again.
But I am wondering if Rituxan did such a great job with reducing my inflammation and wiping out my tumor, why it is not used to treat PMR or GCA? I see Rituxan is used to treat Myasthenia Gravis now (a neurological disease) and possibly other long term conditions. Instead of staying on prednisone for years and years sometimes, what if Rituxan can be used in such a way to treat PMR or GCA? Just a thought in my part. I had no side effects from Rituxan and in fact felt wonderful and had so much energy compared to the awful fatigue that I had before. Sometimes one will have an allergic reaction to Rituxan, but they give steroids and benedryl to offset that reaction.
Any thoughts on this?