Rituximab and lupus: good in real life, bad in controlled trials. Comment on the article by Lu et al.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

1. Efficacy and safety of rituximab for systemic lupus erythematosus treatment: a meta-analysis.African health sciences · 2020
   Pooled it
2. Efficacy and safety of rituximab therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B · 2012
   Pooled it
3. Belimumab versus telitacicept in sequential treatment after rituximab for refractory lupus nephritis: a real-world multicentre study.Lupus science & medicine · 2025
   Article
4. Focal segmental glomerular sclerosis can be effectively treated using an intensive B-cell depletion therapy.Clinical kidney journal · 2023
   Article
5. Outcomes of rituximab therapy in refractory lupus: A meta-analysis.European journal of rheumatology · 2018
   Article
6. Defining biological subsets in systemic lupus erythematosus: progress toward personalized therapy.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2017
   Article
7. Rituximab and lupus--a promising pair?Current rheumatology reports · 2014
   Review
8. Future prospects in biologic therapy for systemic lupus erythematosus.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2013
   Review
9. Safety and efficacy of rituximab in refractory pediatric systemic lupus erythematosus nephritis: a single-center experience of Northern Greece.Rheumatology international · 2013
   Article
10. B-cell depletion in SLE: clinical and trial experience with rituximab and ocrelizumab and implications for study design.Arthritis research & therapy · 2013
    Review
11. The discovery and development of belimumab: the anti-BLyS-lupus connection.Nature biotechnology · 2012
    Article
12. New treatment options for lupus - a focus on belimumab.Therapeutics and clinical risk management · 2012
    Article
13. Rituximab therapy in lupus nephritis: current clinical evidence.Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology · 2011
    Review

Corrections and comments

• Commented on by
  Global versus organ-specific outcome measures in systemic lupus erythematosus: comment on the articles by Furie et al, Nikpour et al, Wallace et al, Burgos et al, and Ramos-Casals et al.2010
• Comment on
  A retrospective seven-year analysis of the use of B cell depletion therapy in systemic lupus erythematosus at University College London Hospital: the first fifty patients.2009

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

Indexed as