Annals of hematology
-
Annals of hematology · Nov 2006
Controlled Clinical TrialEffect of rituximab on the long-term outcome after high-dose therapy for relapsed B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
To better define the role of rituximab in salvage and high-dose therapy (HDT) for relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), patients treated before the implementation of rituximab in salvage and HDT (n = 57, control group) were compared with patients with rituximab included in this procedure (n = 36, study group). All patients had been antibody-naive at this point, and analyses were performed separately for 22 and 31 patients with aggressive, and 14 and 26 patients with indolent NHL, respectively. All patients received two courses of salvage therapy, predominantly dexamethasone, BCNU, etoposide, cytosine arabinoside, melphalan. ⋯ For patients with indolent lymphoma, no comparable benefit was detectable. Our data support the use of rituximab in HDT for patients with aggressive NHL. For patients with indolent NHL, only longer follow-up and/or randomized trials may help to fully determine the impact of rituximab on the outcome after HDT.