New Research In The Treatment Of Cancer Of Immune System. Part 1 of 3

New Research In The Treatment Of Cancer Of Immune System. New on provides more evidence that treating certain lymphoma patients with an high-priced drug over the long term helps them go longer without symptoms. But the drug, called rituximab (Rituxan), does not seem to significantly increase life span, raising questions about whether it’s worth taking. People with lymphoma who are inasmuch as maintenance treatment “really need a discussion with their oncologist,” said Dr Steven T Rosen, director of the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago. The survey involved people with follicular lymphoma, one of the milder forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a term that refers to cancers of the immune system.

Though it can be fatal, most settle live for at least 10 years after diagnosis. There has been debate over whether people with the disease should take Rituxan as maintenance therapy after their initial chemotherapy. In the study, which was funded in part by F Hoffmann-La Roche, a pharmaceutical proprietorship that sells Rituxan, roughly half of the 1,019 participants took Rituxan, and the others did not. All previously had taken the drug right after receiving chemotherapy.

In the next three years, the ponder found, people taking the drug took longer, on average, to develop symptoms. Three-quarters of them made it to the three-year mark without progression of their illness, compared with about 58 percent of those who didn’t away the drug. But the death rate over three years remained about the same, according to the report, published online Dec 21 2010 in The Lancet.

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