The addition of rituximab to short-course intensive chemotherapy has been suggested to improve outcomes for patients with Burkitt's lymphoma, including Burkitt's leukaemia. Now, an open-label, randomized, controlled, phase III trial in patients with untreated HIV-negative Burkitt's lymphoma has confirmed that the 3-year event-free survival (EFS; the primary end point of the trial) was significantly improved with the addition of rituximab to chemotherapy. In the trial, patients were stratified into two groups based on disease extension. Adverse effects did not differ considerably between patients who did or did not receive rituximab. These results indiate that rituximab and intensive short-course chemotherapy improves EFS in adults with Burkitt's leukaemia or lymphoma, and could become the new standard therapy for this disease.
References
Ribrag, V. et al. Rituximab and dose-dense chemotherapy for adults with Burkitt's lymphoma: a randomised, controlled, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01317-3 (2016)
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Hutchinson, L. Rituximab and chemotherapy — a new standard?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 13, 328 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.70
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.70