Dr. Seymour Discusses the Results of the PRIMA Study

John F. Seymour, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, from the Department of Hematology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in East Melbourne, Australia, discusses the results of the PRIMA study, which evaluated the benefit of maintenance therapy with rituximab after induction of response with chemotherapy plus rituximab in comparison with no maintenance therapy in patients with advanced follicular lymphoma.

In this study, patients with high-volume follicular lymphoma were treated with chemoimmunotherapy and then randomized to either maintenance or observation, Seymour says. The maintenance arm was given therapy once every 2 months for 2 years.

At the 2013 ASH Annual Meeting, the 6-year follow-up results were presented. Seymour says results have shown that the patients are still showing an approximately 20% improvement in progression free survival (PFS). Seymour believes these results reinforce the durable benefit of maintenance rituximab after primary chemoimmunotherapy. The results of this follow-up have shown that maintenance rituximab prolongs benefit and does not impair the ability to treat at subsequent progression, Seymour says.