Rituximab reaction

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Hi NHL family,

Hope you are all doing good?  I was diagnosed a few months ago and was prescribe Bendamustine and Rituximab .

Bendamustine - okay not great but coping

Rituximab - woohoo - not great - have severe reactions which involved face, hands and feet swelling, swelling of airways, rash which looks like severe sunburn, racing heartbeat >300 beats a minutes - thought I was having a frigging heart attack, exceptionally high blood pressure - long list but they had to stop treatment C1.  In C2  they tried it again but different manufacturer - lasted 12 minutes before above reactions occurred.  Now they want to admit me to hospital and try it again but diluted.  I don't feel great about this - has anybody had these reactions and if so , what was the outcome?

So not looking forward to C3.

  • Hi  and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am always sorry to see folks joining us. I am Mike and I help out around our various Lymphoma groups.

    I was diagnosed back in 1999 with a rare, incurable type of skin NHL Stage 4a so although my Lymphoma ‘type’ my be different I understand the challenges of this journey well.

    Sorry to hear about the reactions you had to the Rituximab, this often happen but not to the same severity as you have had.

    I actually had Rituximab as part of my R-EPOCH so had the Rituximab as an inpatient (6 days/5 nights in total) on the Rituximab through IV along with all the other drugs 24/7 for over 96 hrs for each of my 6 cycles…… and had no reactions.

    I was told my treatment had to be a ‘slow burn’ as it had to work to get me into the position of going into Stem Cell Transplant.

    Let’s look for the ‘slow burn’ to work for you:

    Mike (Thehighlander)

    It always seems impossible until its done - Nelson Mandela

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  • Ofatumumab (trade name Arzerra)  is supposed to be less likely to give a reaction.

    You could ask about it.