Targeted Therapy for NHL Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

But, generally, they're relatively easy to take compared to many different chemotherapy regimens.

ANNOUNCER: On the basis of the early studies, rituximab was approved for use in low-grade or follicular lymphomas that had relapsed or which proved resistant to other therapies. Now, rituximab is also being used by many doctors for initial therapy in low-grade disease, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy. In treating aggressive forms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, rituximab has been approved as initial therapy in combination with chemotherapy. Questions remain, however. Doctors say important research into how to best use monoclonal antibodies is still underway.

SANDRA J. HORNING, MD: We're still in the process of understanding how to best use them, but where they have been studied either alone or in combination with traditional cytotoxic therapies, either at the beginning of the disease or upon disease relapse or recurrence, even in combination with high-dose therapies such as autologous stem cell transplantation, efficacy has been noted.

And what has really been important about these antibodies, as opposed to many of the other therapeutics that have come along the line, is that they are relatively nontoxic, and you can combine them with traditional cytotoxic therapies, but you don't have to reduce the dose or alter the schedule of the pre-existing effective treatments. Therefore, the combination has proven to be safe and more effective in essentially every setting in which it's been tested in both indolent and aggressive lymphomas.

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