|
|
|
|
|
|
TABLE OF CONTENTS
|
October 4, 2007 NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Following radioimmunotherapy with yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), the incidence of treatment-related acute myelogenous leukemia (t-AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (t-MDS) is 2.5% after 5 years, researchers report. This rate is "acceptably low," principal investigator Dr. Myron S. Czuczman of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, told Reuters Heath, and comparable to rates seen with other radiation-based chemotherapy regimens. As noted in the report in the September 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the radioimmunotherapy agent consists of ibritumomab, a monoclonal antibody to CD20, which is linked to tiuxetan, which in turn chelates indium-11 for imaging and yttrium-90 for therapy. Incidence rates of AML and MDS were compiled from an analysis of data from four trials of yttrium-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan involving 746 patients with NHL. Mean follow-up was 5.6 years after diagnosis and 1.9 years after radioimmunotherapy. Nineteen patients (2.5%) developed t-MDS or t-AML. The annualized rates were 0.3% after diagnosis of NHL and 0.7% after treatment. "Most patients with t-MDS or t-AML had multiple cytogenetic aberrations, commonly on chromosomes 5 and 7," the team reports. Dr. Czuczman said that "the annualized incidences of t-MDS and t-AML are consistent with that expected in patients with NHL who have had extensive previous chemotherapy and do not appear to be increased after treatment with the ibritumomab tiuxetan regimen." "We are cautiously optimistic that this radiation-based chemotherapy regimen will prove to be another treatment option in these patents. However, it is too early to say. The data are still maturing," Dr. Czuczman cautioned. "We still don't know about the timing, such as when to use radiation. Large studies are ongoing. In the next 5 years, we should have much more information." Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for Restrictions.
|
