Maintenance therapy for low-grade lymphomas: has the time come?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The introduction of rituximab (MabThera, Rituxan) maintenance treatment has initiated a new era in the management of low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

RECENT FINDINGS

Five randomized trials have recently reported on rituximab maintenance in the treatment of indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. These trials enrolled patients with follicular, mantle cell and small lymphocytic non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, mostly in relapse. Patients responding to either rituximab monotherapy, chemotherapy alone or rituximab associated with chemotherapy were randomly assigned between observation and rituximab maintenance. Maintenance treatment significantly improved progression-free survival and response duration, and resulted in increased overall survival in two patients. In one trial, rituximab maintenance therapy produced significantly longer progression-free survival compared with rituximab retreatment at disease progression.

SUMMARY

Rituximab maintenance therapy has demonstrated an impact on survival in patients with follicular lymphoma. These data justify recommending rituximab maintenance for patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma. Further trials are needed to determine its efficacy in first-line follicular lymphoma and other histological subtypes. The optimal schedule of maintenance therapy has not been established. Although these trials did not report severe adverse drug reactions, information concerning long-term toxicity is scarce, and careful monitoring of patients is therefore recommended.