Use radioimmunotherapy earlier for lymphomas
Chemotherapy patients with lymphomas may benefit from early Bexxar
therapy |
Radioimmunotherapy should not be reserved for chemotherapy-resistant lymphomas, but should be initiated early in the course of the disease.
So suggest researchers investigating how patients with previously untreated
follicular lymphoma respond to Bexxar therapy,
131iodine-labelled tositumomab, licensed in the US to treat patients
who have not responded to other treatments.
The researchers administered a single, one-week course of 131I-tositumomab
to 76 patients in the late stages of follicular lymphoma who had not
received any therapy before. They recorded a 95 per cent overall response
rate and a 75 per cent complete response rate.
They found that 77 per cent of patients who experienced complete remission
remained disease-free after five years.
The researchers say that during a follow up of approximately five years,
treatment was associated with moderate and reversible haematological
toxicity, but no cases of myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myeloid leukaemia
were observed.
They comment that although further trials are needed to determine the
ideal sequence of available therapies, their new data support early use
of the Bexxar regimen (New England Journal of Medicine 2005;352:441).
A similar immunotherapy treatment, 90Yttrium-labelled ibritumomab
tiuxetan (Zevalin)
was launched in the UK by Schering Health Care last year. It is indicated
for pre-treated patients (PJ, 27 March 2004, p374).
Correction
Zevalin (ibritumomab tiuxetan) was launched last year by Schering Health Care, not Schering-Plough. |
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