have you ever read the warning lable on any of the commonly used antibiotics?

of course Rituximab can have serious side effects. any medication, including tylenol can.

and it has to be given by staff experienced in administering it properly, but this is true for IVIG as well.

in some patient there may be an acute hypersensitivity reaction with severe rigors, sometimes requiring administration of morphine to control. this is seen much more often in patients with lymphoma with bulky disease, and is thought to be the result of the acute formation of antigen-antibody complexes.

as I explained before, the word chemotherapy is basically semantic, but Rituximab is not considered chemotherapy but immunotherapy, and in patients with lymphoma is never given on its own, because it is not very effective, due to its relatively gentle mode of action.

this does not mean, that it is "fun" to get it,

and I hope that you will not experience any significant short or long term side effects.

what I would be concerned about is, the combination of rituximab with significant immunsupressive treatment. this can lead to more severe infectious complications, and I think should be taken into account when deciding on this treatment.

also, repeat treatments (eg- maintenence therapy) , are associated more with significant hypogamaglobulinemia, and serious infections, in lymphoma patients. (who also recieve chemotherapy, which can contribute), but is still a source of concern in autoimmune patients as well.

I personally decided to get as far away from my steroids, before recieving this treatment. but, in my case it's easy, because the steroids only made my illness worse, and should have been stopped long before.

alice