RIT as First Therapy
RIT is currently approved for patients who have relapsed after chemotherapy. Clinical trials such as the one in which Mort participated, indicate that RIT is effective as a first line treatment. In fact, the results of one such study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on February 3, 2005. 76 patients were enrolled. 95% of them responded, and 75% achieved complete response and 75% of those were disease-free after 5 years!
I think this indicates that radioimmunotherapy is an effective treatment. Better yet, it spares patients months of agonizing chemotherapy and its side effects.
Certainly there is a large segment of lymphoma patients who are eligible for RIT. The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 64,000 people will be diagnosed with lymphoma this year. 14,000 of them will have follicular lymphoma, for which RIT is approved. I wish that none of them had to undergo chemotherapy. Hopefully, ongoing studies will soon convince the FDA to approve RIT as a first treatment and chemo will soon be a thing of the past.
Betsy