In Lancet Oncology this week, an international team of researchers reports the results of a population-based study on the conditional survival of metastatic renal-cell carcinoma patients treated with VEGF-targeted therapy. The team analyzed data from 1,673 patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma treated with a first-line VEGF-targeted therapy, and found that there was an increase in the two-year conditional survival probability, from 44 percent at 0 months to 51 percent at 18 months of treatment. "Conditional survival is a clinically useful prediction measure that adjusts prognosis of patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma on the basis of survival since treatment initiation or therapy duration," the team says. "Conditional survival might be especially relevant to adjust prognosis for poor-risk patients."
In NEJM this week, a team of European researchers report on treatment options for older patients with mantle-cell lymphoma. The team randomly assigned 560 mantle-cell lymphoma patients aged 60 or older to receive either six cycles of the R-FC combination therapy — rituximab, fludarabine, and cyclophosphamide — every 28 days or eight cycles of R-CHOP — rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone — every 21 days. They found that complete remission rates were similar between the two treatment regimens, but that progressive disease was more frequent with R-FC. "Overall survival was significantly shorter with R-FC than with R-CHOP, and more patients in the R-FC group died during the first remission," the authors write. "R-CHOP induction followed by maintenance therapy with rituximab is effective for older patients with mantle-cell lymphoma."