AUTHOR=Galimberti Sara , Ciabatti Elena , Ercolano Giacomo , Grassi Susanna , Guerrini Francesca , Cecconi Nadia , Rousseau Martina , Cervetti Giulia , Mazziotta Francesco , Iovino Lorenzo , Falzetti Franca , Falcinelli Flavio , Bosi Alberto , Rigacci Luigi , Kovalchuk Sofia , Vallisa Daniele , Macchia Lucia , Ciancia Eugenio , Petrini Mario TITLE=The Combination of Rituximab and Bendamustine as First-Line Treatment Is Highly Effective in the Eradicating Minimal Residual Disease in Follicular Lymphoma: An Italian Retrospective Study JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2017.00413 DOI=10.3389/fphar.2017.00413 ISSN=1663-9812 ABSTRACT=
R-Bendamustine is an effective treatment for follicular lymphoma (FL). Previous large trials demonstrated the prognostic role of the molecular minimal residual disease (MRD) during the most frequently adopted chemotherapeutic regimens, but there are not yet conclusive data about the effect of combination of rituximab (R) and bendamustine in terms of MRD clearance. Thus, the aim of this retrospective study was to assess if and in what extent the combination of rituximab and bendamustine would exert a significant reduction of the molecular disease in 48 previously untreated FL patients. The molecular marker at baseline was found in the 62.5% of cases; no significant differences were observed between patients with or without the molecular marker in respect of the main clinical features. Moreover, the quantization of the baseline molecular tumor burden showed a great variability: the median value was 1.4 × 10−2 copies, ranging from 3 × 10−5 to 4 × 104. The initial molecular tumor burden did not correlate with clinical features and did not impact on the subsequent quality of response. After treatment, 93% of cases became MRD-negative; the median reduction of the