New Research In The Treatment Of Cancer Of Immune System

New Research In The Treatment Of Cancer Of Immune System.
New examination provides more sign that treating certain lymphoma patients with an valuable drug over the long term helps them go longer without symptoms. But the drug, called rituximab (Rituxan), does not seem to significantly gain life span, raising questions about whether it's worth taking. People with lymphoma who are making allowance for maintenance treatment "really need a discussion with their oncologist," said Dr Steven T Rosen, governor of the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago. The library involved people with follicular lymphoma, one of the milder forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a period that refers to cancers of the immune system.

Though it can be fatal, most ladies and gentlemen live for at least 10 years after diagnosis. There has been debate over whether people with the disease should escort Rituxan as maintenance therapy after their initial chemotherapy. In the study, which was funded in part by F Hoffmann-La Roche, a pharmaceutical companions that sells Rituxan, roughly half of the 1,019 participants took Rituxan, and the others did not. All in days gone by had taken the drug right after receiving chemotherapy.

In the next three years, the swat found, people taking the drug took longer, on average, to emerge 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 ingest 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 remedy "should now be considered as first-line curing for these patients," wrote Dr Gilles Salles of Hospices Civils de Lyon & Universite Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and his inquiry colleagues. But Rosen said there's still a pit over use of the drug as maintenance therapy. "Physicians are falling into two groups. One says, 'There was no survival advantage, I'd just stand by until you have intensification and then re-treat you. That's not unreasonable.'"

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

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

He also described as untimely the researchers' statement that maintenance therapy with the drug should be prescribed for all folk with follicular lymphoma who are initially treated with rituximab plus chemotherapy proextenderdeluxe.com. So "However, allowance is an option," Friedberg said, adding that "the investigators are to be congratulated for this important contribution and are strongly encouraged to go on follow-up of these patients to answer the questions that remain".