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Canada Approves Rituxan (Rituximab), New Class Of Drugs For Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma TORONTO, ON -- April 5, 2000 -- There's hope for the 15,000 Canadians with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), one of the fastest growing cancers worldwide. Rituxan(R) (rituximab), just approved by Health Canada for NHL, is the first in a new class of medications called monoclonal antibodies, which target the underlying cause of some cancers. NHL is a cancer of the lymph system that kills white blood cells. "Rituxan's precision is state-of-the-art," concluded Dr. Berinstein, a medical oncologist and director of The Advanced Therapeutics Program at the Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre. For decades, standard treatment for NHL has been chemotherapy and/or radiation, leaving patients open to toxic side-effects (hair loss, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, increased susceptibility to infection). In clinical trials, the most common side-effects with Rituxan were infusion-related, consisting of flu-like symptoms (e.g. fever and chills) and were generally limited to the first infusion. Unlike many chemotherapies which must be administered for as long as six months, patients taking Rituxan can receive their entire course of therapy (four infusions) as outpatients over 22 days. "I wasn't sick or tired and I didn't have to miss work," said George Monticone, a Rituxan patient. "This treatment is especially exciting for elderly patients, who are often too frail to withstand repeated doses of chemotherapy, and for those whose disease has become resistant to conventional treatments," said Dr. Berinstein. "Rituxan has an excellent success rate of safely shrinking tumours," commented Dr. Myron Czuczman, Head, Lymphoma Service, at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. "There is now a move towards using Rituxan earlier in the course of the disease where it may significantly impact on survival as well as quality of life." E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version