Better, Faster Treatment for Lymphoma
Reported February 3, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — A new cancer treatment effectively treats a form of lymphoma quicker and more easily than traditional chemotherapy, report investigators from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor.
In their study of the drug Bexxar, 95 percent of patients with advanced-stage follicular lymphoma saw their tumors shrink in size. Bexxar (I-tositumomab) targets cancerous cells with a radioactive antibody that essentially zaps them out of existence without harming surrounding tissue Seventy-five percent of patients had a complete remission of the disease. Among those with a complete remission, more than 75 percent were still living five years after treatment.
Unlike traditional chemotherapy, which must be given over about a six-month period and causes severe side effects like nausea and hair loss, Bexxar is relatively simple to administer. Doctors first give patients a trial dose to see how they react. Then, the drug is formulated especially for each patient. The patient receives a single injection a couple of weeks later and is finished with the treatment.
Side effects are generally limited to a lowering of blood counts for a few weeks following treatment. Hair loss and nausea are not typically problems for patients who undergo this treatment.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Bexxar in 2003 for use in follicular lymphoma patients when other treatments had failed. However, given these new findings, these researchers call for Bexxar to be considered as a first-line treatment for the disease.
These results support the notion that theres a real possibility of putting chemotherapy on the back burner for this disease, says study author Mark Kaminski, MD.
SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2005;352:441-449
