Rituximab significantly improves outcome of advanced follicular lymphoma

In patients with previously untreated advanced follicular lymphoma, outcomes can be significantly improved by the addition of rituximab to the standard chemotherapy regimen of cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone (CVP), a multicenter team reports.

In the February 15th issue of Blood, Dr. Robert Marcus of Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, U.K. reports with colleagues on a trial in which 322 patients at 47 study sites were randomized to treatment with 8 cycles of CVP, either alone or with rituximab. All subjects had stage III or IV follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and none had been treated previously. Overall response rates were 81% in the rituximab group and 57% in the no-rituximab group, the investigators report. Complete response rates were 41% with rituximab and 10% without it. Furthermore, according to the article, at 30 months’ follow-up, median time to progression Median time to treatment failure was 27 months in CVP-plus-rituximab patients and 7 months in CVP-alone patients. “The addition of rituximab to CVP demonstrated major improvements in all clinical end points with minimal additional side effects,” the researchers write. “Rituximab-CVP is a highly effective, short, and very low-toxicity regimen that may now be considered as a new standard regimen for the treatment of previously untreated patients with follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.” (Source: Blood 2005;105:1417-1423: Reuters Health: Oncolink: March 2005.)