Patients with B-cell lymphomas who need the administration of rituximab are recruited. They undergo skin tests with rituximab before the first infusion of this medicine. In the case of a positive skin test result, the patient will receive the desensitization procedure; if the result of skin test is negative, the challenge test will be administered. Drug challenge test consists in administering the desired full dose of rituximab according to manufacturer instructions. Challenge is considered positive when it shows an objective HSR. The patient with a positive challenge test will receive the desensitization procedure; while the patient with a negative challenge test will be given standard rituximab infusion in the subsequent chemotherapies.~Peripheral blood will be drawn from all the subjects during their initial infusion of rituximab. If the patient shows hypersensitive symptoms, the blood will be drawn one hour after the onset of reaction; while if the patient has no HSR in the whole infusion process, the blood will be drawn at the end of infusion and used as negative control. Levels of tryptase, specific immunoglobulin E to rituximab, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α in the serum will be tested.
This is a single-center prospective single arm study. The purpose of this study is to assess the usefulness of skin test as a diagnostic tool to predict the hypersensitivity to rituximab in Chinese population, evaluate the rate of hypersensitivity reactions (HSRs) after the application of active desensitization therapy in the case of a positive skin test result, and investigate the mechanism of HSRs to rituximab.