New Research In The Treatment Of Cancer Of Immune System

New Research In The Treatment Of Cancer Of Immune System.
New probe provides more proof that treating certain lymphoma patients with an priceless drug over the long term helps them go longer without symptoms. But the drug, called rituximab (Rituxan), does not seem to significantly distend 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, foreman of the Robert H Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago more. The lucubrate involved people with follicular lymphoma, one of the milder forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a word that refers to cancers of the immune system.

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

In the next three years, the analysis found, people taking the drug took longer, on average, to unfold 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 lure 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.

The analgesic "should now be considered as first-line therapy for these patients," wrote Dr Gilles Salles of Hospices Civils de Lyon & Universite Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and his digging colleagues. But Rosen said there's still a segregate over use of the drug as maintenance therapy. "Physicians are falling into two groups. One says, 'There was no survival advantage, I'd just linger until you have sequence and then re-treat you. That's not unreasonable.'"

Another group "would say that there's potentially better attribute of life during the period without disease. But the psychological benefits from not having any evidence of blight are hard to measure".

In a comment accompanying the report in The Lancet, Dr Jonathan Friedberg, of the hematology and oncology segmentation at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, wrote that "an scrutiny of cost-effectiveness would be very helpful. In an era of increased health-care costs, what benefit is necessary to defend the cost of this maintenance strategy, which at my institution would cost Medicare more than $60000 per patient?" Friedberg asked.

He also described as impulsive the researchers' statement that maintenance therapy with the drug should be prescribed for all rank and file with follicular lymphoma who are initially treated with rituximab plus chemotherapy penies skin dameg thick, erection growth brand creams,ointments. So "However, preservation is an option," Friedberg said, adding that "the investigators are to be congratulated for this important contribution and are strongly encouraged to resume follow-up of these patients to answer the questions that remain".