A trial looking at chemotherapy with or without rituximab for newly diagnosed non Hodgkin lymphoma (MInT)

Cancer type:

Blood cancers
High grade lymphoma
Lymphoma
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial was comparing chemotherapy alone with chemotherapy and rituximab for people under 60 who had been recently diagnosed with diffuse large B cell non Hodgkin lymphoma.

Doctors often treat non Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) with chemotherapy. This works well but sometimes the lymphoma comes back. Researchers thought that having a monoclonal antibody called rituximab (Mabthera) as well as chemotherapy might help to stop the cancer coming back.

The people who took part in this trial had a type of NHL called diffuse large B cell lymphoma. They all had a ‘good prognosis’. This means that their doctors expected them to do well after treatment. The aim of the trial was to see if adding rituximab to chemotherapy would help to stop diffuse large B-cell NHL coming back.

Summary of results

The trial team found that lymphoma came back in fewer people in the group having chemotherapy and rituximab than in the group having chemotherapy alone.

The trial recruited 824 people in different countries around the world. Half the people taking part had chemotherapy, the other half had chemotherapy and rituximab.

After an average of just under 3 years of follow up, the researchers looked at how many people were living without any sign of their lymphoma having come back. They found this was

  • 79% of the people who had chemotherapy and rituximab
  • 59% of the people who had chemotherapy alone

The number of people who had side effects, and how bad the side effects were, was about the same in both groups.

So, the researchers found that adding rituximab to chemotherapy worked well as treatment for people under 60 with good prognosis diffuse large B cell lymphoma.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.

Recruitment start:

Recruitment end:

How to join a clinical trial

Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.

Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.

Chief Investigator

Dr Ruth Pettengell

Supported by

Haematology Trials Group
Roche

If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses

Freephone 0808 800 4040

Last review date

CRUK internal database number:

Oracle - 88

Please note - unless we state otherwise in the summary, you need to talk to your doctor about joining a trial.

Cara took part in a clinical trial

A picture of Cara

"I am glad that taking part in a trial might help others on their own cancer journey.”

Last reviewed:

Rate this page:

No votes yet
Thank you!
We've recently made some changes to the site, tell us what you think