Biogen finds early Zevalin use benefits cancer patients

Biogen Idec has announced that new data demonstrates that patients may benefit from earlier and consolidated use of Zevalin (Ibritumomab Tiuxetan) radioimmunotherapy in refractory and hard-to-treat cancers, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), and follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (FL).

The data was presented at the 47th annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Atlanta.

“The Zevalin data released at this year’s ASH meeting indicate the importance of Zevalin to research and the future of cancer treatment,” said Arturo Molina, senior director, Medical Research Oncology/Hematology for Biogen Idec.

“What’s particularly intriguing about these data is that they demonstrate how therapies such as Zevalin may be integrated into the current standard of care for a variety of lymphomas.

“Just as researchers in HIV look to ‘cocktails’ of therapies to better manage patient disease, we are continually looking at how we can integrate radioimmunotherapy in the oncology arena to give patients additional options and extend survival.”

On February 19th, 2002, the Zevalin therapeutic regimen became the first radioimmunotherapy approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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