High-dose myeloablative radioimmunotherapy of mantle cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma with the iodine-131-labeled chimeric anti-CD20 antibody C2B8 and autologous stem cell support. Results of a pilot study.

Background: CD20 has been used successfully as a target molecule for conventional low-dose, as well as high-dose, myeloablative radioimmunotherapy (RIT) of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an especially aggressive, prognostically unfavorable subtype of B-cell NHL, associated with an overall 5-year survival rate of less than 20%. Recent evidence has failed to show convincing therapeutic efficacy of conventional, nonmyeloablative RIT in patients with MCL.