[Analysis of sustained efficacy of rituximab in children with new-onset nephrotic syndrome].

Authors

L Y Chen, Q Y Li, F Liu, G Q Qi, X J Zhang, Y Y Jin, J J Wang, H D Fu, J H Mao

Published in

Zhonghua er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of pediatrics. Volume 64. Issue 11. Pages 1264-1269. Oct 15, 2026. Epub Oct 15, 2026.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the sustained efficacy and safety of rituximab (RTX) in children with new-onset idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS). Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted. A total of 24 children with new-onset INS who received RTX as initial therapy at the Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine between February 2022 and April 2024 were enrolled. Pre-treatment clinical data, treatment response, dynamic changes in peripheral blood B cells, relapse, and adverse events were collected. Relapse-free survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: Among the 24 children who received RTX, 17 were boys and 7 were girls, with an age at onset of 4.9 (2.9, 8.7) years. Sixteen patients (67%) achieved complete remission (CR) within 4 weeks after RTX treatment, with a time to CR of 18.0 (10.2, 21.2) days. The other 8 cases (33%) did not achieve CR at 6 weeks after RTX treatment (5 with partial remission and 3 without remission), and all subsequently achieved CR after full-dose glucocorticoid therapy. The 16 patients with early CR had a follow-up of 33.6 (27.1, 36.4) months, and 12 maintained drug-free CR at the end of follow-up. Eleven cases (46%) experienced infusion reactions, 12 cases (50%) had infectious events, and 4 cases (17%) developed neutropenia. All adverse events were grade 1-2. Conclusions: RTX monotherapy as initial treatment can induce CR in a subset of children with new-onset INS, and these patients can maintain drug-free remission during follow-up. The drug is generally well tolerated. However, some patients have an insufficient response to RTX and still require glucocorticoid induction.

PMID:
42876101
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.