Mayo Clinic Study Suggests Two is Better Than One When Battling Agressive Lymphoma

Mayo Clinic Study Suggests Two is Better Than One When Battling Agressive Lymphoma

August 10, 2010

When combined with a cocktail of chemotherapy drugs, two monoclonal antibodies, instead of one, appear to offer superior results in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, according to Mayo Clinic researchers working with the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG).

Researchers say that adding the targeted therapy epratuzumab to a regimen known as R-CHOP resulted in an overall 12-month survival of 88 percent in 78 patients. While they call that a very good outcome, the researchers were especially encouraged because the survival rate was 85 percent in patients with high-risk disease.

These results are very good and very promising, and hopefully will be an important advance over treatment now being offered to patients with this cancer, says the studys lead author, Ivana Micallef, M.D., a Mayo Clinic hematologist. But we cannot yet say that is so, since the two different regimens havent been tested head to head.