The study of researchers from the Gustave Roussy Institute de Villejuif caused a stir during the World Congress on Cancer (ASCO) which was held this weekend in Chicago (United States). By combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy in children with lymphoma, they were able to increase the survival rate by 13%. “We went from 81% survival to over 94% survival. Now we can consider that we have almost won the battle” said Dr Véronique Minard-Colin, pediatric oncologist at the Institut Gustave Roussy.
Burkitt’s lymphoma is a rare form of lymph cancer, which mainly affects children. For their study, the researchers therefore recruited 310 small patients in 12 different countries. They were divided into two groups: one received the usual chemotherapy treatment and the second received an additional antibody called rituximab, which stimulates the immune system. It was this combined treatment that reduced the risk of death as well as the risk of cancer relapse and progression by 70%.
This rituximab-chemotherapy combination should now establish itself as the new standard of treatment for this form of childhood lymphoma.
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