Rituximab plus hyper-CVAD alternating with rituximab plus high-dose methotrexate and cytarabine is effective in untreated aggressive MCL. Toxicity is significant but expected. Because of the shorter FFS concurrent with significant toxicity in patients more than 65 years of age, this regimen is not recommended as standard therapy for this age subgroup. Larger prospective randomized studies are needed to define the role of this regimen in the treatment of MCL patients compared with existing and new treatment modalities.
Bortezomib showed promising activity in relapsed mantle-cell lymphoma and encouraging results in other B-cell lymphomas. Future studies will explore bortezomib in combination with other cytotoxic or biologic agents.
Nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation in patients with follicular lymphoma has been designed to exploit the graftversus-lymphoma immunity. The longterm effectiveness and toxicity of this strategy, however, is unknown. In this prospective study, we analyzed our 8-year experience. Patients received a conditioning regimen of fludarabine (30 mg/m 2 daily for 3 days), cyclophosphamide (750 mg/m 2 daily for 3 days), and rituximab (375 mg/m 2 for 1 day plus 1000 mg/m 2 for 3 days). They were then given an infusion of human leukocyte antigen-matched hematopoietic cells from related (n ؍ 45) or unrelated donors (n ؍ 2). Tacrolimus and methotrexate were used for graft-versushost disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. Fortyseven patients were included. All patients experienced complete remission, with only 2 relapses. With a median follow-up time of 60 months (range, 19-94), the estimated survival and progression-free survival rates were 85% and 83%, respectively. All 18 patients who were tested and had evidence of JH/bcl-2 fusion transcripts in the bone marrow at study entry experienced continuous molecular remission. The incidence of grade 2-IV acute GVHD was 11%. Only 5 patients were still undergoing immunosuppressive therapy at the time of last follow-up. We believe that the described results are a step forward toward developing a curative strategy for recurrent follicular lymphoma. (Blood. 2008;111:5530-5536)
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