Sollinger: Drug may reduce vascular rejection

A drug approved for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma shows success in treating transplant patients who experience vascular rejection, a difficult complication. Currently, no FDA drug has been approved to treat severe vascular rejection.

The Rituxan study led by Hans Sollinger of the UW Transplant Program was reported today, May 16, at Transplant 2001, a joint meeting of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons in Chicago.

One year ago, the Wisconsin researchers reported on the use of Rituxan for treating severe vascular renal allograft rejection. Today’s announcement concerns an extended study using Rituxan for various transplant-related indications.

“These study results are significant, in that we have a group of patients who failed to respond to conventional immunosuppressive therapies but successfully responded to Rituxan,” says Sollinger. “It looks like we have a novel drug, which is effective against vascular rejection. It’s like having a disease for which there is no treatment and suddenly you find something.”

The Rituxan study performed during the last year showed that among 20 patients who received the drug for various indications, all but two had successful outcomes, reversals or remission from Rituxan infusions. (The two failures were unrelated to Rituxan).

The FDA approved Rituxan in 1997. In treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the long-awaited biotherapy uses specially manufactured antibodies — large protein molecules — to bind to cancer cells and trigger the immune system to kill cancer rather than relying on toxic chemicals. In doing so, they shrink tumors.

The UW Transplant Program has grown since its founding in 1966 to perform more than 450 transplants a year.