The colony stimulating factor Leukine (sargramostim) may improve the efficacy of Rituxan (rituximab) in treating the most common form of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), according to research from researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center presented at the
9th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma.
"The response rate in our study was encouragingly high, which is good news" said Peter McLaughlin, M.D., lead investigator and professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "The oncology community is constantly looking for new strategies to improve therapeutic outcomes in NHL, and the possibility of achieving this by combining two commercially available agents is exciting and warrants further study."
In the study, 39 patients with indolent NHL received a combination of Rituxan and Leukine. Fourteen of the 39 patients were
treatment naive, while 25 patients had previous treatment for relapsed disease. Of the 39 evaluable patients, 36 percent experienced a complete response (CR), and the overall response (OR) rate was 79 percent. Side effects with the combination treatment were similar to rituxan alone.
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