American College of Rheumatology Presentations Regarding Treatment of Scleroderma

ACR annual meeting, November 2005, San Diego, Calif.

Article by Thomas A. Medsger, Jr., M.D., University of Pittsburgh

At the annual American College of Rheumatology meeting of over 5,000 rheumatologists from around the world, there were 17 presentations which described treatment of scleroderma. Several of them are described below, by category.

Systemic Sclerosis

Primary Therapy:
A Japanese group used a combination of high dose cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) followed by stem cell transplantation in eight patients with severe rheumatic disease, five of whom had systemic sclerosis. None of the patients died. Skin thickening was markedly improved in all systemic sclerosis patients and alveolitis (lung inflammation) was also reduced on repeat high resolution CT scans of the lung. One other ongoing clinical trial will compare high dose monthly intravenous Cytoxan with stem cell transplantation.

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