Chapter title |
Interferon-alpha 2b in the treatment of follicular lymphoma: preliminary results of a trial in progress.
|
---|---|
Chapter number | 22 |
Book title |
Annals of Oncology
|
Published in |
Annals of Oncology, February 1991
|
DOI | 10.1007/978-1-4899-7305-4_22 |
Pubmed ID | |
Book ISBNs |
978-1-4899-7294-1, 978-1-4899-7305-4
|
Authors |
Price, C G, Rohatiner, A Z, Steward, W, Deakin, D, Bailey, N, Norton, A, Blackledge, G, Crowther, D, Lister, T A, C. G. A. Price, A. Z. S. Rohatiner, W. Steward, D. Deakin, N. Bailey, A. Norton, G. Blackledge, D. Crowther, T. A. Lister, Price, C. G. A., Rohatiner, A. Z. S., Steward, W., Deakin, D., Bailey, N., Norton, A., Blackledge, G., Crowther, D., Lister, T. A. |
Abstract |
Since 1985 the combination of chlorambucil (10 mg daily, initially for six weeks, then alternating fortnights for 12 weeks) and interferon-alpha 2b (Schering-Plough; 2 x 10(6) U/m2 three times weekly by subcutaneous injection for 18 weeks) has been compared in a randomised trial with chlorambucil alone in previously untreated patients with stage III or IV follicular lymphoma. Responding patients have subsequently been randomised to receive maintenance interferon-alpha 2b or no further treatment. Of the 124 treated patients, 108 are evaluable for response with a median follow-up of 30 months. The major toxicity was myelosuppression which was more frequent with chlorambucil and IFN alpha 2b in combination than with chlorambucil alone (P less than 0.01). There was no treatment-related mortality. Actuarial survival at three years is 75% for all patients, regardless of therapy. There was no significant difference in response rate according to initial therapy. For the 60 patients achieving a good response to initial therapy who have entered the second part of the trial, there has been a significant prolongation of remission duration in favour of maintenance IFN-alpha 2b (median not yet reached versus two years for the 'no treatment' arm, P less than 0.015). Fewest relapses have been seen in patients who received IFN-alpha 2b throughout. Accrual to this trial continues; this preliminary analysis indicates that maintenance IFN-alpha 2b may extend remission duration in follicular lymphoma. |
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output.
Click here to find out more.