Thank you for sharing your question with the EmpowHER community! It is not surprising that you are concerned about side effects and good that you are looking for answers.
According to information I have read, there are newer therapies, such as biologic agents (in pacrticular rituximab), calcineurin inhibitors, or immunoadsorption are available, but there haven't been many studies to adequately study the side effects. It also suggests that later in the future, peptide immunotherapy might be a safer treatment.
If you do not want to use medication to treat your disease, plasmapheresis is a treatment in which the blood containing the damaging antibodies is removed and replaced with blood that is free of antibodies. Such patients can also be treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IV Ig). Plasmapheresis and IV Ig are pretty expensive since they require large amounts of donated and specially processed blood. The treatment prescribed will depend on the type of pemphigus and the severity of the disease.
Here is some more information on the treatment from the EmpowHER community. Please let me know if this helps.
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Hi Sigit,
Thank you for sharing your question with the EmpowHER community! It is not surprising that you are concerned about side effects and good that you are looking for answers.
According to information I have read, there are newer therapies, such as biologic agents (in pacrticular rituximab), calcineurin inhibitors, or immunoadsorption are available, but there haven't been many studies to adequately study the side effects. It also suggests that later in the future, peptide immunotherapy might be a safer treatment.
If you do not want to use medication to treat your disease, plasmapheresis is a treatment in which the blood containing the damaging antibodies is removed and replaced with blood that is free of antibodies. Such patients can also be treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IV Ig). Plasmapheresis and IV Ig are pretty expensive since they require large amounts of donated and specially processed blood. The treatment prescribed will depend on the type of pemphigus and the severity of the disease.
Here is some more information on the treatment from the EmpowHER community. Please let me know if this helps.
https://www.empowher.com/media/reference/plasmapheresis
Best,
Kristin
August 28, 2014 - 1:56pmThis Comment
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