Comparison Between Rituximab Treatment and General Corticotherapy Treatment in Patients With Pemphigus

Pemphigus is a severe and sometimes life-threatening disease with a mortality rate between 5 and 10 percent depending on the severity of disease and age of patients. The standard of care is high doses of corticosteroids (CS) (usually, prednisone, 1 to 1.5. mg/kg/day, which are often associated with immunosuppressive drugs i.e., azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, although only one randomised study has demonstrated the superiority of the combination of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs as compared to corticosteroids alone (9). Because of the low frequency of the disease, control trials are difficult to conduct. Evaluation of the different treatment regimens proposed, i;e; corticosteroids alone, CS and immunosuppressive drugs, IV immunoglobulins or new therapeutic regimens such as rituximab (an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody directed against B- lymphocytes) or immunoadsorbtion.