Is tocilizumab a potential therapeutic option for refractory unicentric Castleman disease?

We present a case of a patient, negative for HIV and HHV‐8, who had an unsuccessful surgical intervention and no response to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. He had severe paraneoplastic pemphigus and was treated with tocilizumab, an anti‐interleukin‐6 receptor monoclonal antibody that has demonstrated good response rates in multicentric Castleman disease but demonstrated no clinical response despite 2 months of treatment. Our report is the first to describe a lack of response to tocilizumab in the rare setting of refractory UCD and discuss potential for distinct disease biology.

Source: Hematological Oncology - April 11, 2017 Category: Hematology Authors: Muhammad Bilal Abid, Rachel Peck, Muhammad Abbas Abid, Wesam Al ‐Sakkaf, Yuening Zhang, Giles S. Dunnill, Konrad Staines, Iara‐Maria Sequeiros, Lisa Lowry Tags: CASE REPORT Source Type: research