In a nutshell
This study looked at the effectiveness of chemotherapy followed by a single dose of radio-immunotherapy for treating patients with mantle cell lymphoma. The study concluded that radio-immunotherapy after standard chemotherapy is safe and effective to treat patients with mantle cell lymphoma.
Some background
Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. MCL is often initially treated with R-CHOP (rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT; using stem cells from the patient’s own body). However, some patients may not be able to undergo auto-SCT.
Radio-immunotherapy (RIT) may be a good option for patients who cannot undergo auto-SCT. RIT involves using radioactive “tracers” that bind to cancer cells. These tracers mark where the tumors are so a concentrated dose of radiotherapy can be delivered more directly to the tumors. More research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of RIT following chemotherapy.
Methods & findings
56 patients participated in this study. All patients received 4 cycles of R-CHOP chemotherapy. After R-CHOP, patients were given a single dose of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan RIT. The average length of follow up was 9.8 years.
55% of patients achieved a complete response (no detectable cancer) after treatment was completed. The average time to treatment failure (time from treatment to disease progression, treatment stoppage, or death) was 34 months.
The average overall survival (time from treatment to death from any cause) was 7.9 years. For patients younger than 65 years old, the average length of overall survival was not reached at 10 years. For patients older than 65 years old, the average overall survival was 5.7 years.
Seven secondary cancers were reported after treatment. Two were localized non-melanoma skin cancer.
The bottom line
The authors concluded that chemotherapy followed by radio-immunotherapy is safe and effective for treating patients with mantle cell lymphoma.
Published By :
Leukemia
Date :
Feb 01, 2017
