Skip to main content
ACR Convergence 2025 Main banner
Final Program


Schedule at a Glance
Legend
Presentation Icons
CME
CME
Non-CME
Non-CME
In Person
In Person
On Demand
On Demand
Live Stream
Live Stream
Active Learning
Active Learning
Choose Rheum
Choose Rheum
Emerging Investigator Awardee
Emerging Investigator Awardee

Poster Session

Scleroderma

Poster Session C

Session: (2470–2503) Systemic Sclerosis & Related Disorders – Clinical Poster III

2476: Blinatumomab in rapid progressive systemic sclerosis

Tuesday, October 28, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Central Time
Location: Hall F1

    Abstract Poster Presenter(s)

  • CG

    Christina Gebhardt, MD

    LMU Klinikum
    München, Germany

    Disclosure(s): AbbVie/Abbott: Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Alfasigma: Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMS): Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); chugai: Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Eli Lilly: Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Janssen: Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); sanofi: Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); UCB: Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing)


Background/Purpose: Systemic sclerosis is a severe, potentially fatal disease, characterized by progressive fibrosis of skin and internal organs. Blinatumomab is a bispecific CD3/CD19-T-cell engager (BiTe) approved for treatment of relapsing/refractory Philadelphia chromosome negative, CD19-positive B-precursor-acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Methods: After our first case of blinatumomab for acute progressive systemic sclerosis despite conventional therapy, we now report of our cohort of up to date four BiTe treated patients.

Results: All patients showed rapidly progressive skin fibrosis as well as internal organ involvement, namely myocardial fibrosis in our first patient and pulmonary fibrosis in the other three. We administered four cycles of blinatumomab in our first two patients and two cycles with higher daily dose in the other two patients due to good initial results and low grade toxicity. All patients reported of rapid improvement of skin symptoms with a decrease of the Rodnan Skin Score score from (range) 20 to 5 at our last follow-up. Furthermore we could demonstrate receding cardial as well as pulmonary fibrosis, as seen in imaging (cardiac MRI) and lung function tests (increase of DLCOs by up to 11 %). In all patients, peripheral B cell counts declined completely from the first day of treatment with recovery to normal levels within weeks after treatment. Peripheral T cells were significantly reduced on the first day of treatment, but quickly recovered to normal levels and remained stable during subsequent cycles. IgG and Scl 70 ab levels temporarily decreased after treatment. Remarkably, with the exception of a transient neutropenia in one of the four patients, there were no significant adverse events, in particular ICANs, CRS or infections.

Conclusion: Blinatumomab resulted in profound B-cell depletion and a significant decrease in serum IgG with no increased susceptibility to infections. Clinically, the therapy led to a rapid and sustained improvement in symptoms. Further studies are needed to determine the value of B-cell depleting therapy with blinatumomab in systemic sclerosis.