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| |  Rituximab in Combination Therapy for High-Grade B-Cell Lymphoma: Presented at ASH By Arushi Sinha SAN FRANCISCO -- December 10, 2008 -- First-line treatment with rituximab combination therapy for high-grade B-cell lymphoma demonstrated similar outcomes in a community-based setting as it has in clinical trials, according to researchers presenting at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 50th Annual Meeting and Exposition. For patients diagnosed with B-cell lymphomas, efficacious management in the community setting is a challenge. While rituximab had been shown to improve outcomes previously in clinical trials, researchers wanted to know whether these same outcomes could be replicated in a regional, population-based cancer registry. "We wanted to measure the effects of using rituximab in patients in the community," explained lead author Stefan Krause, MD, Medizinische Klinik 5, Universitätsklinikum, Erlangen, Germany, who presented the findings here on December 8. "The overall study population was roughly 85% of all lymphoma patients in the area," he noted. Dr. Krause and colleagues compared the overall survival of patients receiving rituximab plus chemotherapy with patients receiving chemotherapy alone. The patients were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, including diffuse, large B-cell, mantle-cell, follicular, and undefined low-grade lymphomas. The study examined evaluable data on the outcomes from 122 patients who were diagnosed with high-grade lymphomas who received combination rituximab and chemotherapy and 209 patients who received chemotherapy alone. In addition, the study compared overall survival for patients with evaluable treatment data having low-grade lymphoma who were treated with rituximab combination therapy (n = 69) or chemotherapy alone (n = 123). The results demonstrated that, for patients with high-grade lymphoma who received combination therapy, the 2-year survival rate was 87% compared with 70% for patients who received chemotherapy alone (P = .004). In general, among patients with low-grade lymphoma, there were no significant differences in overall survival between the 2 cohorts. The authors noted, however, that, for patients with follicular lymphoma, there was a significant improvement in survival among patients receiving rituximab (91%) when compared to patients not receiving rituximab (72%) (P = .046). Based upon these findings, the authors concluded that rituximab combination therapy as first-line treatment for B-cell lymphoma had similar outcomes in a community-based setting as it does in clinical trials. The authors also observed that more detailed information about patient histories and treatment can help in future studies. "It is worth collecting detailed data in tumour registries," Dr. Krause concluded. [Presentation title: Treatment of High Grade B-Cell Lymphoma With Chemotherapy Plus Rituximab: A Survival Benefit Can Be Demonstrated in the Routine Data of a Regional Cancer Registry. Abstract 3592]
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