Two More Uses for Rituximab
The FDA has approved two additional uses for rituximab (Rituxan, Genen-tech/Biogen Idec) for patients with CD20-positive, B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lym-phoma (NHL): as a first-line treatment of previously untreated patients with fol-licular NHL in combination with cyclo-phosphamide, vincristine, and predni-solone (CVP) chemotherapy, and as a treatment for low-grade NHL in patients with stable disease or who have achieved a partial or complete response following first-line treatment with CVP chemotherapy.
A therapeutic antibody, rituximab depletes CD20-positive B-cells without targeting stem cells or existing plasma cells.
In 1997, rituximab was approved to treat relapsed or refractory low-grade or follicular, CD20- positive, B-cell NHL. In 2006, it was approved for treating diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in combination with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and generic prednisone (CHOP) or other anthracycline-based chemotherapy in previously untreated patients. That same year, it was also approved, in combination with metho-trexate, to reduce signs and symptoms in adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who responded inadequately to one or more tumor necrosis factor-antagonist therapies.
Rituximab is approved in the European Union under the trade name MabThera.
