Abstract
The authors describes a case of a 18-year-old patient suffering from pemphigus vulgaris in whom adjuvant therapy with rituximab has been initiated due to the protracted course of treatment, frequent exacerbations of the disease, development of multiple complications during long-term systemic corticosteroid therapy and ineffective prior adjuvant therapy (azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, mycophenolate mofetil). Currently, the described patient has been in complete remission of the disease for 21 months only with supportive osteoporosis therapy.
Rituximab is a chimeric (murine/human) mono-clonal antibody targeting B cell surface receptor CD20 and has been newly introduced to the first line of systemic therapy of pemphigus and induced good therapeutic response and steroid-sparing effect in clinical trials. The authors present an overview of current knowledge about the treatment of this disease with rituximab.