AB0703 Long term follow-up of behÇet’s syndrome patients treated with cyclophosphamide
Authors: M. Gurcan, S.N. Esatoglu, V. Hamuryudan, C. Saygin, D. Saygin, S. Ugurlu, E. Seyahi, I. Fresko, M. Melikoglu, S. Yurdakul, H. Yazici, G. Hatemi
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2018)

<h3>Background</h3> Cyclophosphamide (CYC) remains an important treatment option for Behçet's syndrome (BS) patients with life-threatening conditions such as arterial aneurysms. However, several adverse events may occur with CYC and this has led to increased use of biologic agents such as rituximab in other vasculitides. <h3>Objectives</h3> The aim of this study is to delineate the outcome and short and long-term adverse events with CYC use among BS patients. <h3>Methods</h3> We conducted a retrospective chart review of all BS patients treated with oral or intravenous CYC between 1976 and 2006. Patients were called and a standard form was used for collecting demographic characteristics, CYC indication, cumulative dose of CYC and short-term serious adverse events necessitating the cessation of therapy and/or requiring hospitalisation and long-term adverse events (malignancy and infertility), and outcome. <h3>Results</h3> We identified 198 (M/W: 184/14) BS patients who had received CYC. After a median follow up of 17 (IQR: 9–26) years after the initiation of CYC therapy, 52 (26%) patients had died within a median duration of 4<sup>1–12</sup> years, 33 (17%) were lost after a median follow-up of 9 (3.5–14) years, and 113 (57%) were contacted. CYC was prescribed for vascular involvement in 132 (67%) patients, eye involvement in 52 (26%), central nervous system involvement in 5, both vascular and eye involvement in 7 and both vascular and central nervous system involvement in 2 patients. The median duration of CYC use was 12 (IQR:4–24) months and median cumulative dose was 13.5 (IQR:6–49) gr. Among the 52 patients who died, reasons for death were vascular involvement in 26, malignancies in 7, infections in 5 (5 bacterial infections, 1 additional tuberculosis), neurologic involvement in 2, ischaemic stroke in 1, traffic accident in 1, and secondary amyloidosis in 1, esophageal variceal bleeding in 1, and unknown in 5 patients. Sixteen (8%) patients experienced serious adverse events associated with short-term CYC use and 1 of them died due to infection. Among these adverse events, haemorrhagic cystitis occurred in 7 patients, infections in 4 (1/4 died), leukopenia, acute myocardial infarction, anaphylactic reaction, azoospermia, liver toxicity, and severe nausea in 1 patient each. Overall, 16 malignancies were observed in 14 (7%) patients after a median follow up of 25 (IQR:15–26) years. The malignancies were bladder carcinoma (n=4), lung adenocarcinoma (n=3), prostate adenocarcinoma (n=2), carcinoma of unknown primary origin, pancreas adenocarcinoma, t-MDS-AML, lymphoma, colon adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and thyroid papillary carcinoma. Among the 113 patients, we were able to question regarding infertility, 67 patients (59%) had children, 22 (19.5%) did not wish to have a child and 24 (21.5%) tried to have a child, but was not able to. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Short term serious adverse events occurred in 8% of the patients during CYC treatment. During long term follow-up malignancies occurred in 7% and infertility in 21.5% of the patients. These results underline the need for safer and effective alternatives to CYC for serious organ involvement in BS, similar to that in other vasculitides. <h3>Disclosure of Interest</h3> None declared