Ocrelizumab - long-term efficacy and safety in real-world clinical practice in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
Abstract
Ocrelizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody against CD20+ lymphocytes, which is expressed mainly, although not exclusively, on B lymphocytes. The binding of ocrelizumab leads to rapid and efficient depletion of these cells.
It has demonstrated its high efficacy in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in the OPERA clinical trials published in 2017, which led to its approval in the Czech Republic as an escalation therapy in 2018. Current trends recommending early initiation of highly effective treatment, especially in patients with an unfavorable prognosis, reflect new indication restrictions from 2022, allowing for the initiation of multiple sclerosis treatment with ocrelizumab in these patients.
Although ocrelizumab has a favorable safety profile and is generally well-tolerated, given its sustained immunosuppressive effect, active monitoring and risk assessment of infectious complications, vaccination management, monitoring of patients for potential malignancies, and careful evaluation of the benefit/risk ratio over longer time intervals and in real-world clinical practice are required in addition to monitoring efficacy. The aim of this article is to familiarize the reader with recently published work in the context of the real-world experience of patients treated with ocrelizumab at our MS center.