1. Typhlitis as a complication of alemtuzumab therapy
- Author
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I. Marie, S. Robaday, J.M. Kerleau, F. Jardin, and H. Levesque
- Subjects
Diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs ,RC633-647.5 - Abstract
Alemtuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against lymphocytes through the CD-52 receptor, an antigen being found on > 95% of peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes, and to a smaller extent on granulocytes.1–7 It is an effective immunotherapeutic agent in patients with malignancies such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and T cell prolymphocytic leukemia.1–7 Adverse side effects are increasingly recognized in patients receiving alemtuzumab, mainly including fever, rigors, nausea/vomiting, skin rash; other severe alemtuzumab-related reactions have also been described, such as lymphopenia and neutropenia leading to both opportunistic (e.g. cytomegalovirus) and non-opportunistic infections.7–10 Digestive complications have more rarely been described, i.e.: gastroenteritis and peritonitis.10 We recently observed a case of particular interest as the patient with T cell prolymphocytic leukaemia treated with alemtuzumab, exhibited symptomatic reactivation of CMV infection and developed subsequently typhlitis
- Published
- 2007
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