This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Rituximab plus chemotherapy improved survival in mantle cell lymphoma
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Adding rituximab to standard chemotherapy results in an improvement in OS among older patients with mantle cell lymphoma, results of an observational study indicated.
Although rituximab is known to improve survival for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia when used as part of first-line treatment, little was known about the effect rituximab would have on patients with mantle cell lymphoma.
Researchers looked at data from 638 patients in the SEER database who began chemotherapy with or without rituximab within 180 days of diagnosis. The mean age of patients was 75 years.
Patients received an average of 21 weeks of therapy overall (20 weeks for rituximab plus chemotherapy; 21 weeks for chemotherapy alone).
Of the 411 deaths that occurred during follow-up, 75% occurred due to cancer.
Data indicated the median OS was 37 months for rituximab plus chemotherapy, compared with 27 months for chemotherapy alone. At two years, 63% of patients on combination treatment were alive vs. 52% of those on chemotherapy alone (P<.001).
In addition, patients assigned to rituximab had reduced all-cause mortality (HR=0.58; 95% CI, 0.41-0.82) and reduced cancer mortality (HR=0.56; 95% CI, 0.37-0.84). There was no effect on noncancer mortality.
For more information:
- Griffiths R. Blood. 2011;118:4808-4816.