During the last decades, the number of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) has grown in HIV-negative patients due to the increasing use of organ
transplantation, immunosuppressive drugs and targeted therapies [
[1]
]. Guidelines about PJP prophylaxis in immunocompromised (IC) HIV-negative patients
are scarce. CD4+ cell count is less helpful in IC patients than in HIV-positive, and B cells may
help clearing Pneumocystis infection [
[2]
]. Rituximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody that targets human cell-surface glycoprotein
CD20 expressed on B cells. It has gained many indications, especially off-label, for
the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Serious infection rates ranging from 2% to 22%
have been reported in such uses. The largest cohort of rituximab-related PJP in HIV-negative
patients included 30 patients, with 90% of them suffered from blood cancer [
[3]
].Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 30, 2017
Accepted:
November 28,
2017
Received in revised form:
November 23,
2017
Received:
October 30,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
