Reply to: Towards a rational graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis: rituximab should not be forgotten

We would like to thank Dr. Van Hoef for her interesting remarks in this issue of the Journal1 and acknowledge the fact that rituximab has produced some interesting data in the treatment of both acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). However, most studies cited by Dr. van Hoef were observational and compared lymphoma patients who received rituximab as part of the B-cell lymphoma treatment during conditioning to patients who had not received such conditioning. When we presented our editorial “Towards rational GvHD prophylax-is” we wanted to refer to the process of gaining new insights from experimental data that leads to the initiation of a randomized clinical trial that ultimately changes clinical practice. This does not apply to the use of rituximab in GvHD prophylaxis (or treatment). In the table, we attempted to list all relevant randomized clinical trials on GvHD prophylaxis. Unfortunately, no such trial has been performed with rituximab.