Shorter cancer treatment boosts survival

 

A study of elderly patients with an aggressive form of blood cancer has found giving treatment over a much shorter time frame significantly improves survival.

Results of the German study of patients aged over 60 with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, known as large cell lymphoma, will be presented to a meeting of Australian haematologists in Melbourne this weekend.

 

The study of more than 800 patients found 78 per cent of those given six treatments, 14 days apart of standard chemotherapy plus an antibody known as rituximab and a growth factor were still alive after 30 months.

This was 20 per cent better than those who received eight treatments of a similar drug cocktail, 21 days apart.

The outcome is so much better than anything else we've seen," said Brisbane-based haematologist Mark Bentley.

"It means we can shorten the whole time of treatment and get better outcomes."

Lead researcher Michael Pfreundschuh, who is in Australia, has recommended standard treatment for elderly patients with large cell lymphoma be cut from 126 days to 84 days in line with the study results.

 

Dr Bentley, the Queensland Haematology and Oncology Group's director, who has been recommending the shorter treatment approach to his patients for a couple of years, said the change did not appear to intensify side effects.

"It doesn't add to the toxicity of treatment at all," he said.

"It's nice to see the big studies confirming what we do in clinical practice."

Nevertheless, Dr Bentley said giving the patient an injection of a white blood cell growth factor known as Newlasta the day after standard chemotherapy was key to reducing the chance of patients succumbing to infection.

 

"It means that elderly patients who always had more side effects, particularly more infections, more bone marrow toxicity, they're actually now able to have the same intensity of treatment as younger patients," he said in an interview.

"The results are manifested by these good outcomes that we're seeing."

Without the growth factor, patients can develop a condition known as neutropenia when the body's production of white blood cells is reduced to a level that makes them highly susceptible to life threatening infections.

 

Dr Bentley said around 10 Australians were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma every day and another four died of the condition.

More than 80 per cent of those who die from the cancer are aged more than 50.