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Six Open Clinical Trials That Are Expanding Our Understanding of Immunotherapies
Colorectal cancer, melanoma, multiple myeloma, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia are among the types diseases that are being targeted.
Follicular lymphoma (FL), which accounts for about 20% to 30% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas, is an incurable disease. Although people with FL are living longer, the median overall survival (OS) had been about 10 years—until recently. According to researchers from the Spanish Lymphoma Oncology Group, OS may be changing. In their long-term study of 1,074 patients with newly diagnosed FL, median OS was more than 20 years.
Related: Six Open Clinical Trials That Are Expanding Our Understanding of Immunotherapies
The difference, the researchers say, may be chemoimmunotherapy, specifically, the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab. Patients were enrolled between 1980 and 2013 and followed for a median of 55 months. The researchers note that rituximab was added to the treatment options in 2003. When the researchers analyzed the patients who were still alive 10 years beyond the diagnosis, they found that 118 of 166 were free of evident clinical disease.
The prognostic factors the researchers enumerate are similar to those of other studies. The variables significantly associated with survival at 10 years were stage great than II, aged < 60 years, low Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index, normal β2 microglobulin, no B symptoms on diagnosis, Performance Status 0 to 1, and treatment with anthracyclines and rituximab. But their data, the researchers add, support the conclusion that the initial combined treatment with rituximab and anthracyclines “could be considered key factors.” They note that randomized studies and meta-analyses have repeatedly made improvements in the survival of patients with FL.
Related: New Treatments Offer Hope in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma
“We believe that the weight of the introduction of [rituximab] in a young population, associated with chemotherapy,” the researchers say, “has given these high rates of survival in an unselected population.” They conclude, “in the [rituximab] era, the strategy of ‘wait and watch’ remains valid for patients with favorable prognostic factors and low-grade tumors.”
Source:
Provencio M, Sabín P, Gomez-Codina J, et al. PLoS One. 2017;12(5):e0177204.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177204