Treanda (bendamustine) may be an effective substitute for CHOP as the chemotherapy partner to Rituxan (rituximab) for patients receiving initial therapy for advanced follicular or mantle cell lymphomas.
Treanda (bendamustine) may be an effective substitute for CHOP as the chemotherapy partner to Rituxan (rituximab) for patients receiving initial therapy for advanced follicular or mantle cell lymphomas.
A phase 3 German study compared the effectiveness and safety of Rituxan plus Treanda to Rituxan plus CHOP (R-CHOP), a chemotherapy “cocktail” that includes cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone. The Rituxan plus Treanda study arm included 260 patients; the R-CHOP arm had 253 patients.
Rituxan plus Treanda outperformed the traditional R-CHOP regimen at almost every turn. Median progression-free survival (the length of time the cancer did not progress) hit 54.9 months in the Treanda arm, compared with 34.8 months in the R-CHOP group, and 39.6 percent of patients receiving the Treanda combo had a complete remission (disappearance of all signs of cancer) versus 30 percent of those on R-CHOP. Plus, the R-CHOP arm resulted in a higher frequency of severe side effects, namely neutropenia and leukocytopenia.
