Short-term efficacy and safety of rituximab therapy in refractory systemic lupus erythematosus

Dr Marwan Bukhari and Prof Ian Bruce, University of Manchester, talk about his recently published paper on the results of the use of rituximab to treat refractory SLE from the BILAG biologics register. Prof Bruce is the chief investigator of the register, which observes patients going onto biologics for active disease. The focus of the study was to monitor the use of rituximab in SLE patients and gather real world evidence on the safety and efficacy of this. The study found that after 6 months of treatment 49% of patients showed a measurable response to treatment with rituximab, similar to what was observed in clinical trials.