title: Long-term complete responses after 131I-tositumomab therapy for relapsed or refractory indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
abstract: We present the long-term results of 18 chemotherapy relapsed indolent (N = 12) or transformed (N = 6) NHL patients of a phase II anti-CD20 (131)I-tositumomab (Bexxar) therapy study. The biphasic therapy included two injections of 450 mg unlabelled antibody combined with (131)I-tositumomab once as dosimetric and once as therapeutic activity delivering 75 or 65 cGy whole-body radiation dose to patients with normal or reduced platelet counts, respectively. Two patients were not treated due to disease progression during dosimetry. The overall response rate was 81% in the 16 patients treated, including 50% CR/CRu and 31% PR. Median progression free survival of the 16 patients was 22.5 months. Median overall survival has not been reached after a median observation of 48 months. Median PFS of complete responders (CR/CRu) has not been reached and will be greater than 51 months. Short-term side effects were mainly haematological and transient. Among the relevant long-term side effects, one patient previously treated with CHOP chemotherapy died from secondary myelodysplasia. Four patients developed HAMA. In conclusion, (131)I-tositumomab RIT demonstrated durable responses especially in those patients who achieved a complete response. Six of eight CR/CRu are ongoing after 46-70 months.
authors: Service of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland. Franz.Buchegger@chuv.ch
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Buchegger
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Antonescu
authors: A Bischof
authors: AB
authors: Delaloye
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Helg
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Kovacsovics
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Kosinski
authors: J-P
authors: JP
authors: Mach
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Ketterer