Well, Rituxan, which I'm about to start getting, is a form of chemotherapy. It's the chemo used for lymphoma, but it has been showing some promise in treating MG as well, especially people who are MuSK positive. I'm seronegative, but the doc wants to try it anyway, so I'm going to do it. I'll let you know what happens![/QUOTE]

Rituxan is not chemotherapy, it is immunotherapy.

we used to treat patients with lymphoma with chemotherapy, but now it is almost the mainstay of treatment to give immunochemotherapy.

the word chemotherapy doesn't really mean much. as any chemical given as treatment can be considered chemotherapy, including antibiotics.

it just becme a word for those medications that were given fror cancer, caused a lot of horrible side effects, like nausea, hair loss, etc.

hopefully we are gradually able to make our treatments for cancer much more targeted, and much less toxic.

the short term side effect profile of Rituxan is much more like IVIG then "chemotherapy". and long term it is probably much less then steroids.

alice