Rituximab Maintenance Treatment of Relapsed/Resistant Follicular Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Long-Term Outcome of the EORTC 20981 Phase III Randomized Intergroup Study

Abstract

Purpose In 2006, we published the results of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer phase III trial EORTC 20981 on the role of rituximab in remission induction and maintenance treatment of relapsed/resistant follicular lymphoma (FL). At that time, the median follow-up for the maintenance phase was 33 months. Now, we report the long-term outcome of maintenance treatment, with a median follow-up of 6 years. Patients and Methods Overall, 465 patients were randomly assigned to induction with either six cycles of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone (CHOP) or rituximab plus CHOP (R-CHOP). Those in complete remission or partial remission after induction (n = 334) were randomly assigned to maintenance treatment with rituximab (375 mg/m2 intravenously once every 3 months) or observation. Results Rituximab maintenance significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with observation (median, 3.7 years v 1.3 years; P < .001; hazard ratio [HR], 0.55), both aft...