ASH Clinical News ACN_3.13_FULL_ISSUE_DIGITAL | Page 67

CLINICAL NEWS investigated whether rituximab maintenance therapy would prolong response in patients who had received a transplant conditioning regimen without total-body ir- radiation and induction therapy without alkylating and anthracycline agents. Between September 2008 and August 2012, the researchers enrolled 279 adult patients (median age = 57 years; range = 27-65 years) who were younger than 66 years of age and had untreated MCL. Patients included in the study were eligible to undergo AHCT, had Ann Arbor stage II-IV disease, and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score of <3. Patients with other major coexisting conditions were excluded. All patients received induction therapy with four courses of R-DHAP (rituximab, dexamethasone, high-dose cytarabine, and cisplatin). Twenty patients who had a partial response or whose tumor was reduced by <75 percent then received rescue induction therapy with four courses of R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone). A total of 257 patients underwent AHCT (14 R-DHAP–treated patients and 8 R-CHOP–treated patients were excluded, mainly for disease progression or ineligibility to receive AHCT). Prior to transplant, patients received conditioning therapy with R-BEAM (rituximab, carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan). For as long as three months after transplant, patients were randomized to either the maintenance arm (rituximab 375 mg/m 2 administered Continued on page 68