The FDA has approved Zevalin as a first-line consolidation therapy. I've been waiting for this good news for a few months.
What this means is that Zevalin may now be used immediately after chemotherapy in treating Follicular NHL and other indolent lymphomas. Zevalin had been previously approved for use only when the chemo stoppsed working. This approval basical encourages combining chemo and Zevalin together. The hope is that more oncologists will give Zevalin a try now, since trial results show such wonderful success when it is used in this way.
The approval came after results from the FIT Study (First-line Indolent Therapy Study), a long-term study which showed that progression-free survival more than doubled when Zevalin was given after one of several chemotherapy treatments (including Fludarabine, CVP, and CHOP, the chemos that I've discussed with Dr. R).
Oncologists have been reluctant to use Zevalin for a bunch of reasons -- difficulty in administering it, reimbursement oddities -- mostly stuff that has nothing to do with its effectiveness. They'll have fewer excuses now, it is hoped.
This is very good news for what seems to be a very promising treatment. There should be some small rejoicing in the NHL community today.
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