A review compared the treatment responses of 1,177 patients from ten clinical trials in which Bexxar was used as either first-line, second-line, third-line, or fourth-line (or greater) treatment.
The differences in response rate, median duration of response, complete response rate, median duration of complete response, and progression free survival greater than one year were highly statistically significant between each treatment sequence. For example, the complete response rate with Bexxar as fourth-line or greater therapy was 23%, compared to 46% as a second-line treatment.
Similarly, progression free survival greater than one year was 59% for second-line patients compared to 27% for those patients who received Bexxar as fourth-line or greater therapy.
“Response rates, complete response rates and associated durations of response to the Bexxar therapeutic regimen all increased significantly as the number of prior therapies decreased,” said Dr Stephanie Gregory, the Elodia Kehm professor of medicine and director of the section of hematology and stem cell transplantation at Rush University Medical Center, and the lead author of the study.
“These data suggest that Bexxar should be administered early in the course of relapsed lymphoma for optimal outcome, and not reserved as a salvage treatment.”