New Treatments Improve Lymphoma Survival

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New treatments incorporating immunotherapy - strategies that boost the immune system -- have significantly improved overall survival of patients with a blood cancer called follicular lymphoma, according to a new report.

Emerging data suggest that for patients with follicular lymphoma "initial treatment choices may matter," Dr. Richard I. Fisher from University of Rochester in New York told Reuters Health.

Fisher and colleagues compared outcomes of patients with follicular lymphoma treated with three commonly used sequential treatment approaches: CHOP with or without nonspecific immunostimulants; ProMACE plus MOPP with or without interferon; and CHOP followed by monoclonal antibody therapy with rituximab or 131I-tositumomab.

"In our studies," the investigators write, "treatment with CHOP combination chemotherapy followed by an monoclonal antibody therapy seems to be the best option."

Four-year estimates of overall survival showed progressive increases from 69 percent survival at 4 years with CHOP to 79 percent survival with ProMACE to 91 percent with CHOP plus monoclonal antibody therapy, the researchers note.

The study also shows that so-called disease progression-free survival curves for the CHOP and ProMACE regimens essentially overlapped, the authors report, with estimated 4-year progression-free survival rates of 46 percent and 48 percent, respectively.

The 4-year estimated progression-free survival was significantly improved with CHOP plus monoclonal antibody therapy (61 percent), the authors also report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, Online October 17, 2005.