Laurie Barclay, MD NEW YORK (MedscapeWire) May 20
The new radioimmunotherapy drug ibritumomab (Zevalin) looks promising for treating low-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a results of a study published in the May 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Many patients who had exhausted all other treatment options responded well to ibritumomab, and some even achieved complete remission. “Unlike chemotherapy which goes through the whole body, Zevalin carries the radiation payload directly to the tumor,” lead author Thomas E. Witzig, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says in a news release.
“The drug radiates only about a five millimeter area around the tumor.” In this randomized phase III study, 143 patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma who had previously failed standard chemotherapy regimens received either a single dose of ibritumomab after 2 rituximab (Rituxan) pretreatments, or rituximab weekly for 4 weeks. Positive response with tumor shrinkage occurred in 80% of patients who received ibritumomab and in 56% of patients receiving only rituximab (P=.002).
Complete remission rate was 30% for ibritumomab and 16% for rituximab alone (P=.04), with median duration of response 14.2 months for ibritumomab and 12.1 months for rituximab. Primary toxicity of ibritumomab was reversible myelosuppression.
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