Dr. Rummel on Treanda Plus Rituxan in Indolent Lymphoma

Dr. Mathias Rummel, from University Hospital Giessen in Germany, on Bendamustine Plus Rituximab in Indolent and Mantle Cell Lymphomas

Mathias J. Rummel, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at the University Hospital Giessen in Germany, discusses the long-term results of a phase III trial that examined the front-line combination of bendamustine (Treanda) and rituximab (Rituxan) for patients with indolent and mantle cell lymphomas.

The 514-patient trial compared the combination of bendamustine and rituximab (B-R) to the standard chemotherapy regimen R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone), which is widely used as a first-line treatment for many non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

The investigators initially expected to find a better toxicity profile and non-inferiority of B-R over R-CHOP; however, they were pleased to find that B-R was able to delay disease progression longer than R-CHOP.

At the long-term follow up, the B-R arm demonstrated a median progression-free survival of 69.5 months compared to 31.2 months for R-CHOP. Additionally, the side effects associated with the B-R combination were far less than those seen with R-CHOP.

This data solidifies the superiority of B-R over R-CHOP in the font-line, for indolent and mantle cell lymphomas.

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