Alemtuzumab (CAMPATH-1H) for the treatment of acute rejection in kidney transplant recipients: long-term follow-up.
BACKGROUND
Alemtuzumab (MabCampath, Campath-1H) is a lymphocyte-depleting monoclonal antibody increasingly used in renal transplantation. This article reports the long-term follow-up data from the first series of patients treated with alemtuzumab for biopsy-proven acute rejection (BPAR).


METHODS
Fifteen patients were identified who had received alemtuzumab for BPAR between November 1991 and June 1994. Patient and allograft survival were compared with a control group consisting of 25 patients with BPAR from the same era treated with intravenous methyl prednisolone, and with a contemporaneous UK renal transplant cohort.


RESULTS
All rejection episodes responded to treatment with alemtuzumab but there was an excess of early infection-associated death in this group. Long-term transplant survival was similar in both groups as was allograft function (mean creatinine concentration at 10 years was 143 micromol/L in alemtuzumab cohort and 183 micromol/L in control cohort, P=0.06). There was no excess incidence of malignancy or cytomegalovirus infection in this prolonged follow-up period.
Division of Renal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom. mrc38@cam.ac.uk
Menna R
MR
Clatworthy
Peter J
PJ
Friend
Roy Y
RY
Calne
Perpetua R U
PR
Rebello
Geoffrey
G
Hale
Herman
H
Waldmann
Christopher J E
CJ
Watson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000074323:Alemtuzumab; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002102:Cadaver; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology*; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D008775:Methylprednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D000074323:Alemtuzumab; D008775:Methylprednisolone