Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients with vasculitis are often treated with the B-cell-depleting anti-CD20 antibody rituximab. Treatment reduces the cryoglobulins that cause vasculitis, yet it also leads to a transient increase in liver enzymes and HCV genomic RNA in the periphery. The mechanism underlying the increased viral load is unclear and both direct and indirect roles have been pro...

Despite many therapeutic options for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the disease remains incurable. Since monoclonal antibodies and recombinant toxins that bind surface antigens expressed on the malignant lymphocytes have been developed, targeted therapy has become a vital option in treating CLL. Rituximab (Rituxan), a chimeric human-mouse anti-CD20 antibody, and alemtuzumab (Campath), a hu...

A 57-year-old man presented with a spontaneous upper-extremity hematoma and compartment syndrome. The patient experienced excessive bleeding following evacuation of the hematoma, and the results of routine coagulation studies were normal. Factor XIII activity was undetectable using a photometric assay, and the presence of an inhibitor was detected with mixing studies. Bleeding was controlled wi...

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disorder which causes deforming joint disease and a spectrum of extraarticular manifestations. Poor disease control may lead to functional impairment and loss of independence. In recent times a prominent role for B cells in the pathogenesis of RA has been suggested. Two major theories have been postulated to explain the role of rheuma...

Despite great progress has been made in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treatment, especially with the combination of the anti-CD20 antibody (rituximab) with the standard chemotherapy, this disease’s clinical and biological heterogeneity is responsible for unpredictable responses to treatment and difficult prognostic assessment. The biological prognostication of these patients has been a target o...

The major complication in the treatment of hemophilia A is the development of neutralizing antibodies (inhibitors) against factor VIII (FVIII). The current method for eradicating inhibitors, termed immune tolerance induction (ITI), is costly and protracted. Clinical protocols that prevent rather than treat inhibitors are not yet established. Liver-directed gene therapy hopes to achieve long-ter...

BACKGROUND Treatment of follicular lymphoma with rituximab is currently recommended at a dose of 375 mg/m(2). We aimed to provide a rationale for optimal dosing and scheduling of this anti-CD20 antibody based on pharmacokinetics. DESIGN AND METHODS Clinical efficacy of immunochemotherapy with rituximab, fludarabine and mitoxantrone followed by 2-monthly rituximab maintenance was evaluated in ...

Castleman's Disease (CD) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder accompanied by marked systemic inflammatory response. Morphological diagnosis of CD requires biopsy of the whole of the involved lymph node tissue. Three histologic variants have already been described in CD morphology (hyaline vascular, plasma-cell, and mixed). In this study, we report a case of a multicentric Castleman's disease ...

There is a long history of absorbed dose calculations being performed to evaluate the risks involved in the application of radiopharmaceuticals to medical studies. In the 1940s, Marinelli, Quimby, and Hine (1–3) published a set of articles that presented a summary and approach to radionuclide dosimetry. In 1956 Loevinger et al. (4) summarized the field at that point, and then in 1968 the newly ...

After Yttrium (Y90) Ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin) and Iodine (131I) tositumomab (Bexxar) were approved by the FDA, the improved response of B-cell NHL to this novel RIT makes it a promising alternative to more aggressive treatment like HSCT. In this study, we describe the experience of a single community-based cancer center with RIT and HSCT in patients with B-cell NHL in terms of response, su...