Quality of Life in Patients with B-Cell Lymphoma during Maintenance Therapy with the Anti-CD20 Antibody Rituximab.

The introduction of rituximab into the treatment of malignant lymphomas of the B-cell lineage has had a major impact on the management of these diseases. In diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) and follicular lymphomas (FLs) several multicenter prospective randomized trials consistently demonstrated an improved outcome when rituximab was added to chemotherapy. In addition, prolonged exposure to rituximab as maintenance therapy has been benefical in patients with FL and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). For patients, the effect of any prolonged antitumor therapy on the quality of life (QoL) is a very important question. However, so far the question whether rituximab maintenance therapy may impair QoL in patients with Non-Hodgkins-lymphoma remains unanswered. To investigate this subject, we have performed a prospective randomized trial of rituximab maintenance therapy (8 cycles rituximab 375 mg/m² every 3 months) versus observation in patients with CD20+ B-cell Non-Hodgkins-Lymphoma in our institution. Between July 2002 and December 2005, 106 patients (pts) were included into the trial. QoL was assessed with the standardized questionnaires EORTC-QLQ-C30 and EuroQol-5D. After statistical analysis with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, we found no significant differences of the QoL between the rituximab treatment group and the observation group. We conclude that rituximab maintenance therapy is safe and does not impair quality of life in this patient population.