MabThera Maintenance Therapy Dramatically Improves Survival for Patients with Lymphoma

Two years of maintenance therapy with MabThera (rituximab) dramatically improves the chances of survival for patients suffering from one of the most frequent forms of lymphoma, indolent non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL). This is the outcome of a clinical trial presented today at the 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Atlanta, USA. The trial showed that the risk of death is halved for patients who receive MabThera maintenance therapy, compared to those who receive no maintenance treatment, irrespective of their initial therapy.

Professor Marinus van Oers M.D. from the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam and lead investigator of the pivotal study said: “Our trial confirms that MabThera maintenance therapy is highly beneficial for all patients, including those who have already received MabThera as part of their initial therapy. We have not seen such an impressive improvement in progression free and overall survival for indolent NHL in the last 30 years. Maintenance therapy with MabThera may well become the new standard of care for these patients.”Based on this data, Roche will file today with the European authorities for a label extension for MabThera maintenance therapy for patients suffering from indolent lymphoma. In Western Europe alone, 20,000 people are newly diagnosed with indolent NHL every year, and around 40,000 are being treated for this disease. “We are conscious that these results open a new era in the management of this insidious disease”, said William M. Burns, CEO of the Pharmaceuticals Division at Roche. “NHL is one of the fastest growing cancers and so we are working closely with health authorities to ensure that MabThera is available as maintenance therapy as soon as possible.”About the studyIn the EORTC 20981 (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer) trial, 465 patients with relapsed and refractory indolent NHL were randomised to receive either 3-weekly cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) chemotherapy or MabThera plus CHOP as induction therapy. Responding patients were then again randomised to either MabThera maintenance, or observation (no further treatment).MabThera maintenance therapy was applied as a single infusion of 375mg/m2 every three months over a period of two years. The primary endpoints were response rates and progression-free survival for the initial treatment phase and the maintenance phase of the study, respectively. The trial was performed in 130 centres in Canada, Australia, Netherlands, UK, Norway, Slovenia, Slovakia, Belgium, Hungary, South Africa, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Egypt, France, Switzerland, Italy and Poland.Results of the induction phaseThe results of the induction phase of the trial showed that patients who received MabThera and CHOP (R-CHOP) had a significantly higher rate of complete remission than patients who received CHOP chemotherapy alone (29% vs 16%, p value <0.0001). Furthermore, MabThera and CHOP chemotherapy significantly increased progression free survival compared to CHOP chemotherapy alone (median progression-free survival of 33months vs 20 months, p value =0.0003).Click here to see the full results