Ritiuximab appears to prolong cancer remission

Rituximab (Rituxan), used to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, appears to be effective in prolonging remission when given on a regular basis, according to preliminary analysis of a late-stage trial.

The phase III trial, conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, was stopped early after an initial look at the data showed patients taking regular doses of rituximab, a monoclonal antibody, plus chemotherapy stayed in remission longer than who received chemotherapy alone. Rituxan is marketed in the United States by Genentech Inc. and Biogen Idec and in the rest of the world by Roche. The data support a growing body of information that suggests treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma with rituximab early and for longer periods of time is more effective than treating later and less frequently. Rituximab was originally approved for patients who had failed at least one round of chemotherapy. It was not approved to be given regularly, but doctors are increasingly using it that way.”Although not groundbreaking, the data show that maintenance treatment with Rituxan confers overall improvement in patient outcomes,” said Jennifer Chao, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “Now we’re getting the clinical data to substantiate what has been suspected for the last few years.” Nearly 50% of doctors already use Rituxan as a maintenance therapy in some form, Chao said, and the drug’s marketers see further penetration of that market as important to Rituxan’s sales growth.”We are very interested in pursuing the idea of maintenance therapy for Rituxan,” said Neil Cohen, a spokesman for Genentech. “It is an important commercial goal for our company.”(Source: Reuters Health: November 13, 2003: Oncolink)