Ook in Amerika krijgt men interesse in de studie van het gebruik van Rituximab bij ME/CVS-patiënten. Er werden reeds contacten gelegd met de Noorse studiegroep en ze hopen om binnenkort zelf trials met Rituximab te kunnen uitvoeren.
Dit schreef Dr. Lapp in zijn nieuwsbrief van december 2011:
"Many of you have read an October study from cancer researchers in Norway who ‘discovered’ a new treatment for CFS/ME. Drs. Oystein Fluge and Olav Mella wrote in the October 19, 2011 PLos ONE edition that they serendipitously treated two CFS/ME patients with the chemotherapy drug, Rituximab, and the patients recovered from both their lymphoma and their CFS/ME. They went on to study 30 more CFS/ME patients in a randomized. placebo-controlled study. Of the 15 patients who received Rituximab, ten (67%) had lasting improvements in fatigue and other symptoms. The mean response from two treatments with the drug was 25 weeks (range 8-44 weeks), but response was somewhat delayed in onset (2-7 months after treatment). There were no serious adverse events in the study, although two patients with psoriasis noted moderate worsening of their rash. See http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2377/9/28, the published article, and more details can be found at http://www.research1st.com/2011/10/19/rituximab-trial.
The Open Medicine Institute has already begun discussions with the Norwegian study group, and we are hoping to soon offer trials of Rituximab in our office, pending approval by regulatory agencies and funding for the drug."
bron : http://drlapp.com/news/me-letter-december-2011/#rituximab
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