Rituximab-led immunochemotherapy almost doubles remission for leukaemia patients
A new "immunochemotherapy" treatment combination allows people with the most common form of leukaemia to almost double their chance of achieving a complete remission, compared with those treated with chemotherapy alone.
A new ‘immunochemotherapy’ treatment combination allows people with the most common form of leukaemia to almost double their chance of achieving a complete remission, compared with those treated with chemotherapy alone.
One study of 817 previously untreated CLL patients (CLL-8 trial) showed that adding rituximab (MabThera) to chemotherapy (a combination known as R-FC) meant they were almost twice as likely to achieve complete remission compared with those treated with chemotherapy (FC) alone.
In a separate study (REACH), the same immunochemotherapy combination was shown to stop the disease in relapsed patients for an additional 10 months when compared with FC chemotherapy alone. In this study, complete remission rates were also nearly doubled in the R-FC arm.
Results from both studies were announced at the American Society of Haematology annual meeting in San Francisco.
Professor Andrew Pettitt, consultant haematologist at Royal Liverpool University Hospital and a UK investigator in the REACH study, said: ‘These results represent a significant advance, and will change the way we approach the treatment of CLL.’
CLL is the most common form of leukaemia and there are an estimated 3,400 new cases each year. The disease is twice as common in men as in women, with incidence rapidly increasing after the age of 50.
Rituximab is not currently licensed for the treatment of CLL. A European marketing licence application was filed for previously untreated patients with CLL in July 2008. If the licence application is successful, rituximab should be available for this group of UK CLL patients in the first half of 2009.