National Study Backed by a Rare Disease Cohort the Benefit / Risk Balance of Immunomodulatory Treatments Prescribed in the Child and Adolescent for Autoimmune Cytopenia.

Chronic immunological thrombocytopenic purpura and anemia hemolytic autoimmune are rare autoimmune hematologic diseases, primary or secondary, affecting the child often very young, sometimes associated simultaneously or sequentially (Evans syndrome). They can be life-threatening, they in 20 to 50% of cases of prolonged dependence on immunosuppressants. The incidence of Immune-Thrombocytopenic Purpura is 2 to 5 / 100,000 inhabitants of under 18, the Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia 5 to 10 times lower.

For the pediatric population, the experience reported in the literature is limited to individual cases or small series often retrospective and not comparative. It does not allow to have in 2013 a reasoning based on on evidence to define the second-line therapeutic strategy, in especially for Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia where the therapeutic data are almost nonexistent. Splenectomy remains to this day the reference treatment of the Chronic Immune-Thrombocytopenic Purpura of the adult. In children, the therapeutic goal is to avoid it or to prevent it delay it. After failure of first-line treatments (immunoglobulins or corticosteroids) used for treatment of relapses or continuously, the main immunomodulatory treatments used in second line are azathioprine, ciclosporin, hydroxychloroquine, rituximab, mycophenolate mofetil, romiplostim, eltrombopag.

The benefit / risk balance of these 7 immunomodulatory treatments prescribed to the child for autoimmune cytopenia is presumed to be favorable based on the very limited data from the pediatric literature and the experience of most adults do not benefit from a specific marketing authorization.