Rituximab and Cytokine Release Syndrome
Rituximab is a biologic agent that is usually well tolerated. With its increasing use for a myriad of rheumatologic and immunologic conditions, post-marketing surveillance has revealed more side effects. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome associated with cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is a ver...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Karger Publishers
2012-03-01
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| Series: | Case Reports in Oncology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/337577 |
| Summary: | Rituximab is a biologic agent that is usually well tolerated. With its increasing use for a myriad of rheumatologic and immunologic conditions, post-marketing surveillance has revealed more side effects. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome associated with cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is a very rare entity associated with the use of rituximab and carries a very high morbidity and case fatality rate. Cases of CRS reported within the literature are of patients with a very high tumor burden leading to a catastrophic cascade of events. We report the case of a patient having post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder who died of fatal lactic acidosis and CRS within 24 h of receiving rituximab. Understanding the pathophysiology of such cases and identifying patients at risk may help to possibly avert this life-threatening complication. |
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| ISSN: | 1662-6575 |