A trial looking at chlorambucil alone, rituximab alone, or chlorambucil and rituximab together for MALT lymphoma (IELSG 19)

This trial looked at chlorambucil and rituximab as treatment for MALT lymphoma. You may have either drug on its own, or both drugs together.

MALT stands for mucosa associated lymphoid tissue. MALT lymphoma is a low grade, B cell, non Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Doctors usually use a chemotherapy drug called chlorambucil to treat MALT lymphoma. This shrinks the lymphoma in most cases, but it doesn’t usually go away completely.

Doctors thought that a monoclonal antibody called rituximab may have been useful. Trials in some other types of lymphoma have shown that rituximab and chemotherapy work well together. But doctors were not sure how well rituximab would work for MALT lymphoma, either on its own, or with chemotherapy.

In this trial, some people had chlorambucil, some people had rituximab and some had both drugs. The aim of the trial was to find out which of these 3 treatments worked best.