Successful treatment with tacrolimus of a patient with severe idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation

Efficacy and steroid-sparing effect of tacrolimus in patients with autoimmune cytopenia

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and steroid-sparing effect of tacrolimus in patients with autoimmune cytopenia, including immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), and Evans syndrome (ES). Patients in the tacrolimus group were treated with tacrolimus in combination with steroids, and the control group received only steroids. Of the 318 patients finally enrolled, 87 (27.4%) were males, with a median age of 45 (14-90) years. The tacrolimus group comprised 144 patients, including 120 ITP, 19 AIHA, and 5 ES patients, and the control group comprised 174 patients, including 141 ITP, 25 AIHA, and 8 ES patients. The optimal ORR of the tacrolimus group was comparable to that of the control group, and the optimal CRR was higher (p < 0.05). Patients receiving tacrolimus had a decreased relapse rate and prolonged relapse-free survival (p < 0.05) compared with the controls for both the whole cohort and the ITP and AIHA subgroups. Compared with the control group, the tacrolimus group had a lower cumulative steroid dosage and earlier discontinuation of steroids (p < 0.05), which resulted in a decreased incidence of steroid-related adverse events (p < 0.05) although the total side effects were similar between the two groups. Similar drug expenses were observed between the tacrolimus and control groups at the 18-month follow-up. In conclusion, the early addition of tacrolimus had a similar ORR, better CRR, lower relapse rate, and prolonged relapse-free survival compared to steroids alone, with reduced steroid-related adverse events.

Tacrolimus is effective in relapsed/refractory autoimmune cytopenias: results of a single-center retrospective study

BACKGROUND

The standard therapies for autoimmune cytopenias, including idiopathic thrombocytopenia (ITP), autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and Evans syndrome (ES), are corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulin G. However, the recurrence rate is high.

METHOD

Data from 80 patients with ITP, AIHA and ES who were refractory to corticosteroids/relapsed and were treated with tacrolimus from January 2018 to January 2019 in Peking Union Medical Colleague Hospital were reviewed retrospectively.

RESULTS

There were 24 males and 56 females, with a median age of 43 (14-81) years, including 66 with ITP, 11 with AIHA and 3 with ES. The median disease duration before tacrolimus was 16 (2-432) months. The complete response (CR) rates were 30.3%, 63.6% and 0%; the overall response (OR) rates were 63.6%, 72.7% and 66.7% for ITP, AIHA and ES, respectively; and the median time to response was 3 (2-10) months. In a median of 18 (10-24) months of follow-up time, 21.4% of ITP patients relapsed at a median time of 7 months. No relapse was found for patients with AIHA and ES. Side effects occurred in 16.3% of patients, including elevated creatinine (N = 3, 3.8%), gastrointestinal reactions (N = 3, 3.8%), and pulmonary infection (N = 2, 2.5%), and resulted in 3 patients stopping tacrolimus. The OR rate was found to be related with age (P = 0.01) but not with sex (P = 0.62), the duration of disease (P = 0.66), tacrolimus concentration (P = 0.99) or disease type (P = 0.84).

CONCLUSION

Tacrolimus can achieve a durable response with mild side effects in patients with steroid-refractory/relapsed autoimmune cytopenias. Patients with younger age had a better response.