Comparing the cost-effectiveness of rituximab maintenance and radioimmunotherapy consolidation versus observation following first-line therapy in patients with follicular lymphoma.

Background: Phase 3 randomized trials have shown that maintenance rituximab (MR) therapy or radioimmunotherapy (RIT) consolidation following frontline therapy can improve progression-free survival for patients with follicular lymphoma (FL), but the cost-effectiveness of these approaches with respect to observation has not been examined using a common modeling framework.

Objectives: To evaluate and compare the economic impact of MR and RIT consolidation versus observation, respectively, following the first-line induction therapy for patients with advanced-stage FL.

Methods: We developed Markov models to estimate patients' lifetime costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and life-years (LYs) after MR, RIT, and observation following frontline FL treatment from the US payer's perspective.

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of radioimmunotherapy consolidation for patients with untreated follicular lymphoma.

Background: Follicular lymphoma (FL) is characterized by multiple relapses and progressively shorter response durations with subsequent therapies. Despite the development of numerous treatment strategies to reduce the risk of progression, optimal therapeutic strategies for patients with FL remain undefined. Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) with an anti-CD20 antibody linked to iodine-131 or to yttrium-90 has emerged as well-tolerated treatment after induction.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: current treatment approaches.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most commonly occurring lymphoid malignancy. While a series of trials support R-CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone, plus rituximab)-21 as the standard of care for all patients, DLBCL has substantial biological and clinical heterogeneity, leading to marked differences in outcomes for disease subgroups. We examine clinical, biological, and functional imaging techniques for risk-stratifying patients, and we review approaches for dose intensification in the rituximab era that are aimed at improving outcomes for poor-risk patients.