Introduction: Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a special form of pancreatitis that responds well to glucocorticoid (GC) treatment. Relapses of AIP are common. The anti-CD20 antibody rituximab (RTX) has shown promising results in GC refractory cases, but long-term data are scarce. The study aims to determine the clinical and imaging response to RTX and summarize the existing data on RTX therapy in patients with AIP type 1 in the literature.
Patients and methods: Retrospective analysis of electronic medical records was conducted. Additionally, we conducted a systematic review of the literature concerning RTX use in AIP type 1.
Results: Twelve (11.7%) of 103 patients with AIP type 1 were treated with RTX during the study period: eight (66.7%) achieved complete and four (33.3%) partial remission. RTX was discontinued in one patient who developed fever and reactivation of latent tuberculosis. None of the remaining 11 patients relapsed during a median follow-up of 17 months. No significant differences were detected in baseline clinical characteristics or history of relapse between the patients who obtained complete and partial remission. Altogether, eight studies with 110 AIP type-1 patients treated with RTX were analyzed. Adverse effects ranged from 11-43% and the relapse-free period during follow-up (range 2-173 months) ranged from 38-94%.
Conclusions: Our results confirm that RTX is efficacious in the treatment of AIP type 1 by inducing remission and preventing relapse. In addition, there are few adverse effects of the treatment.
Keywords: Autoimmune pancreatitis; IgG4-related disease; relapse; rituximab.