Trial of Rituximab Given Pre-Transplant to Sensitised Live Donor Kidney Recipients

Summary

About one third of prospective kidney transplant recipients have antibodies in their blood directed against the tissues of their only available kidney donor. Recently, "desensitisation" treatments when administered pre-transplant have allowed successful transplantation of these patients despite high rates of acute antibody mediated rejection (AAMR). The investigators propose to test in a randomised controlled trial whether rituximab, a monoclonal antibody that depletes B-lymphocytes, will safely lower antibody mediated rejection (AMR) rates when added to "standard" therapy. The investigators will also test whether rituximab enables more patients to achieve a negative crossmatch against their donor and thereby allow more transplants to proceed.

Timeline

Start

2006-04

Primary completion

—

Completion

2009-01

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.