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.