Summary
1200 patients with folliclar lymphoma treated with chemotherapy followed by maintenance Rituxan had a longer survival than thos not given Rituxan maintenance.
Analysis
There is somthing new about this data. Follicular lymphoma treated with Rituxan given alone as maintenance therapy following chemotheraspy for four cycles of four iweekly infusions given every week every six months for 2 years, as per the Hainsworth trial, has been shown to result in a prolonged time to disease relapse. This holds true whether or not Rituxan had been given with the previous chemotherapt regimen. As it turns out, waiting until disease relapse after chemotherapy before giving Rituan again leads to a similar overall survival. Most oncologists have opted for Rituxan maintenance.
This data does not apply to large cell lymphoma, in which time to relapse is not prolonged by Rituxan maintenance.
Seeing 'longer survival' (OS, not PFS) after Rituxan maintenance is new information.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
