Convincing results
“What I thought the Japanese study did was to give a much more convincing proof of concept than has been out there,” Dr. Spiera said in an interview.
“There have been some preliminary experiences that have been encouraging with rituximab in scleroderma, most of which has been open label,” he said.
He also referred to a retrospective study by EUSTAR, the European Scleroderma Trials and Research group, which indicated that patients who had previously received rituximab seemed to have had better outcomes than patients who had been treated with other therapies.
Dr. Spiera added that, although he was glad to see the data from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in this population, he was uncomfortable with the idea of leaving patients untreated for 6 months.
“From the standpoint of somebody wanting to know what strategies might be promising, this is great for us, but I would not have designed the trial that way,” he said.
The study results were previously published in the Lancet Rheumatology.
The study was supported by grants from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development and Zenyaku Kogyo. Dr. Yoshizaki disclosed no relevant financial relationships. Dr. Spiera has received grant/research support from and has consulted for Roche/Genentech, maker of rituximab, and has received compensation from other companies.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.