Clinical activity of rituximab in extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of MALT type

Abstract

The clinical activity of rituximab has been evaluated in a phase 2 study in both untreated and relapsed mucosaassociated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphomas. Treatment consisted of 4 standard (375 mg/m 2 ) weekly doses. Thirtyfive patients were enrolled, and 34 completed the treatment program. The primary lymphoma location was stomach in 15 patients, and extragastric in 20. Eleven patients had previously been treated with chemotherapy. At study entry 12 patients had Ann Arbor stage I E , 3 had stage II E , and 20 had stage IV disease. The overall response rate was 73% (95% confidence interval, 56%-87%), with 15 complete responses and 10 partial responses, and the response rate was significantly higher in the chemotherapy-naive patients, who had an 87% response rate compared with 45% of the previously treated patients (P ‫؍‬ .03). The median response duration was 10.5 months. At a median follow-up of 15 months, 9 patients (26%) relapsed. The median time to treatment failure was 14.2 months in the whole series, but it was significantly longer (22 versus 12 months) in the chemotherapynaive patients compared with those who had prior chemotherapy (P ‫؍‬ .001). Most adverse events were of mild to moderate severity with no grade 4 toxicity. This study indicates that rituximab is safe with significant activity in MALT lymphomas.

Rituximab therapy in malignant lymphoma

“…Efficacy was demonstrated in relapsing mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma (Conconi et al, 2003). A current International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group trial randomizes chlorambucil vs chlorambucil þ rituximab in new or relapsing patients with MALT lymphoma.…”

Rituximab treatment in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome: An open‐label phase II study

“…Corticosteroids and diseasemodifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) have no major effect on the disease course (2,3). Rituximab, a chimeric murine/human anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody that binds to the B cell surface antigen CD20, is currently used in the treatment of B cell lymphomas (4)(5)(6). It is also considered a promising agent for treatment of various autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (7)(8)(9).…”

Nuclear bcl10 expression characterizes a group of ocular adnexa MALT lymphomas with shorter failure-free survival

“…13 This is in keeping with the findings from a large series of MALT lymphomas, which showed that the efficacy of treatment varied accordingly with the site, stage, and clinical status of patients. 14 Nevertheless, a subset of these tumors shows a higher incidence of local or distant relapses, or even of systemic progression. [14][15][16] Whether this can be explained in terms of the site of origin or the biological features of the tumoral cells is a matter of debate 16 whose resolution requires further research.…”