AI Summary
The cancer drug teclistamab has shown remarkable results in treating a severe case of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a 23-year-old patient, who went from being wheelchair-bound to completely symptom-free after six months of treatment. This case has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and marks a promising starting point for further studies in the field. Previous treatments, including cortisone and eight other therapies, had not been effective in moderating the patient's overactive immune system attacking multiple organ systems. The success of teclistamab in this case offers hope for other severe lupus patients.
The team at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is astounded by the huge improvement seen in a female patient with severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) after being treated with the cancer medication teclistamab. Not long ago, the 23-year-old was wheelchair-bound due to an autoimmune disease.
Nearly six months after starting treatment, the patient is now completely symptom-free. Only time will tell if this improvement will last over the long term, but the case – which the team has now published in the New England Journal of Medicine* – marks a promising starting point for further studies.
Nothing was sufficiently alleviating the symptoms of the 23-year-old patient from Berlin, including cortisone and eight other therapies that should have moderated her overactive immune system. Her autoimmune disease, diagnosed as systemic lupus erythematosus, was particularly severe and was attacking four of her organ systems. Her skin was blistered, her joints and kidneys were severely inflamed, and her number of red blood cells, which supply oxygen to the body’s tissue, was too low.
“Due to the persistent pain she was experiencing, the patient could no longer walk, was wheelchair-bound, and her kidneys were at risk of failing,” says Dr. Tobias Alexander, the physician treating her at the Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology at Charité. As the Head of the Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic, he’d “never seen a case this severe before.”
Because the established treatment pathways had all been exhausted, he suggested that the patient should take teclistamab – the first time this had