Rituximab
 

I'm not medically literate enough to know if this is big news or not, but I'm passing on this link: "AAN: Rituximab Effective in Myasthenia Gravis"

http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AAN/19555

Abby

I know that the first thing my neuro would say about this is that its a good sign but there were only 13 people in the study so it wasn't a very good study.

My neuro proposed me to try Rituximab as I'm refractive to IVIGs and Cellcept, sustained large doses of Pred are not very effective and I have PLEX each 10 or 15 days in the meantime…
One presentation in a Paris meeting in late December gave about the same conclusions (maybe the same study?), but it indicated also that the initial improvement did not last after the first 6 months or so, which was the period of time for the Rituximab injections…
I haven't made up my mind yet!
Maurice.

I saw that story and was very excited. Even though the study wasn't that thorough and was very short-term, the big news for me is that it involved an existing, already approved drug, not some experimental drug years away (if ever) from approval. I haven't seen anything like this in the 2+ years that I have been following MG. Hopefully his study will continue and we'll get to see what the long-term results are.

Maurice,

I swear...You and I must have the same 'type' of MG....Have you tried Imuran yet? I'm using that now, and am hoping it'll work much better than prednisone ever did....

Nicky

Hi Nicky,
My neuro told me that since Imuran is in the same class of immunosuppressors as Cellcept, it wouldn't be more effective...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18493241
Maurice.