Case reports: efalizumab-associated lymphoproliferative disease

Abstract

Efalizumab is an immunosuppressive agent that has been approved for the treatment of psoriasis. There has been mounting evidence that efalizumab may be associated with lymphoma/malignancy development. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of a patient who developed Epstein Barr Virus-associated large B cell lymphoma after treatment with efalizumab for psoriasis. As immunosuppressive medications such as efalizumab get increasingly prescribed, the likelihood of seeing various malignancies will increase. Thus, physicians need to have a high index of suspicion for malignancy in patients on immunosuppressive medications like efalizumab.