Use of rituximab as a salvage therapy for HIV-associated multicentric Castleman disease

Abstract

Several approved therapies for multicentric Castleman disease (MCD) cannot be uniformly applied due to intolerable side effects. There is also a high percentage of recurrence of this disease despite treatment. Rituximab may be effective in controlling MCD in a subset of patients. This paper includes a brief case report and an extensive review of previously published cases. We observed an aggravation of concomitant cutaneous Kaposi sarcoma, and hypothesize that rituximab could have exacerbated it.