Immunotherapy drug could ‘extend the lives of cancer patients by more than EIGHT YEARS’
The drug, obinutuzumab in combination with standard chemotherapy, could help lymphoma patients live for more than eight years disease-free, one expert said
A PIONEERING new drug could extend the lives of cancer patients by more than eight years, experts claim.
The treatment, using obinutuzumab and standard chemotherapy, drastically increases the time patients battling a common form of lymphoma can live disease free.
The results were seen in a trial treating follicular lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that develops when the body produces abnormal white blood cells.
The cancer builds up in the lymph nodes, and common symptoms include painless swelling in the neck, armpit or groin.
One of the current treatments for the common form of lymphoma is a drug called rituximab, which is often given to patients alongside their chemotherapy.
Often patients find they are declared cancer-free, and receive further maintenance treatment for two years.
But experts said today the findings from a new study, the GALLIUM trial, suggest obinutuzumab could be a more effective treatment for follicular lymphoma patients.
One expert said the prediction is that the drug could extend life by more than eight years.
They found patients given the new drug had a 34 per cent reduced risk of the disease progressing.
Furthermore, 81.9 per cent of patients taking obinutuzumab lived for an extra three years cancer free.
This is why the results from the trial are so important... with a predicted increase in progression-free survival to over eight years in patients
Dr Robert Marcus
Dr Robert Marcus, consultant haematologist at King's College Hospital said the drug could have the potential to extend life by more than eight years.
He said: "Since the incorporation of rituximab into first-line therapy for patients with follicular lymphoma, the outlook for these patients has improved significantly.
"This is due first to the addition of rituzximab to induction therapy and secondly as maintenance with the progression-free survival virtually double than that seen a decade ago.
"Most, if not all these patients, will eventually relapse with subsequent remissions shorter than the first and the 20 per cent of patients relapsing within three years, have a particularly poor prognosis.
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"This is why the results from the GALLIUM trial, where obinutuzumab-based chemotherapy was compared to rituximab-based treatment, are so important with a predicted increase in progression-free survival to over eight years in patients in the obinutuzumab arm."
He added: "We are optimistic that the early adoption of obinutuzumab-based therapy will further improve the outlook for patients with follicular lymphoma."
The findings were presented at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting in San Diego.