Successful treatment with rituximab for angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma

Hidenori Kasahara; Tsunayuki Kakimoto; Hideaki Saito; Keigo Akuta; Kazutaka Yamamoto; Hidetoshi Ujiie; Hiroyuki Sugahara; Yoshihiko Hoshida; Hiroto Sakoda

doi:10.1016/j.lrr.2013.03.001

Successful treatment with rituximab for angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma

Leuk Res Rep. 2013 May 1;2(1):36-8. doi: 10.1016/j.lrr.2013.03.001. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Hidenori Kasahara¹, Tsunayuki Kakimoto², Hideaki Saito¹, Keigo Akuta¹, Kazutaka Yamamoto¹, Hidetoshi Ujiie¹, Hiroyuki Sugahara¹, Yoshihiko Hoshida³, Hiroto Sakoda¹

Affiliations

¹ Sumitomo Hospital, Department of Hematology, Osaka, Japan.
² Rinku General Medical Center, Department of Hematology, Osaka, Japan.
³ National Hospital Organization Osaka Minami Medical Center, Department of Pathology, Osaka, Japan.

Abstract

We experienced a patient with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) without Epstein-Barr virus-positive B (EBV-B) cells at initial presentation who progressed to AITL with expansion of EBV-B cells at relapse. Based on the results of repeated biopsy, the patient was successfully treated with rituximab in combination with chemotherapy at relapse. A repeat biopsy may be necessary to determine the optimum therapeutic strategy at relapse, particularly for patients with suspected expansion of B cell and/or EBV-B cells. Although a recent report found no significant prognostic advantage of rituximab, it is one of the active drugs for selected patients with AITL.

Keywords: Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL); EBV-DNA; Epstein–Barr virus; R-CHOP; Rituximab.