The Impact Of Rituxan For The Treatment Of Follicular Lymphoma

The Impact Of Rituxan For The Treatment Of Follicular Lymphoma.
New probe provides more exhibit that treating certain lymphoma patients with an high-priced drug over the long term helps them go longer without symptoms. But the drug, called rituximab (Rituxan), does not seem to significantly inflate life span, raising questions about whether it's worth taking. People with lymphoma who are in maintenance treatment "really need a discussion with their oncologist," said Dr Steven T Rosen, headman of the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago cersex colombia. The ponder involved people with follicular lymphoma, one of the milder forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a time that refers to cancers of the immune system.

Though it can be fatal, most nation live for at least 10 years after diagnosis. There has been debate over whether people with the disease should drive Rituxan as maintenance therapy after their initial chemotherapy. In the study, which was funded in part by F Hoffmann-La Roche, a pharmaceutical plc that sells Rituxan, roughly half of the 1019 participants took Rituxan, and the others did not muslim. All in the old days had taken the drug right after receiving chemotherapy.

In the next three years, the go into found, people taking the drug took longer, on average, to come forth symptoms. Three-quarters of them made it to the three-year mark without progression of their illness, compared with about 58 percent of those who didn't require the drug. But the death rate over three years remained about the same, according to the report, published online Dec 21 2010 in The Lancet.

The analgesic "should now be considered as first-line therapy for these patients," wrote Dr Gilles Salles of Hospices Civils de Lyon & Universite Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and his delve into colleagues. But Rosen said there's still a break up over use of the drug as maintenance therapy. "Physicians are falling into two groups. One says, 'There was no survival advantage, I'd just shelved until you have elevation and then retreat you.

That's not unreasonable'". Another group "would say that there's potentially better property of life during the period without disease. But the psychological benefits from not having any evidence of c murrain are hard to measure".

In a comment accompanying the report in The Lancet, Dr Jonathan Friedberg, of the hematology and oncology set at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, wrote that "an critique of cost-effectiveness would be very helpful. In an era of increased health-care costs, what benefit is necessary to confirm the cost of this maintenance strategy, which at my institution would cost Medicare more than $60000 per patient?" Friedberg asked.

He also described as unfledged the researchers' statement that maintenance therapy with the drug should be prescribed for all race with follicular lymphoma who are initially treated with rituximab plus chemotherapy herbal. "However, maintenance is an option," Friedberg said, adding that "the investigators are to be congratulated for this foremost contribution and are strongly encouraged to pursue follow-up of these patients to answer the questions that remain".