A trial looking at obinutuzumab with chemotherapy for follicular lymphoma (GALLIUM)

Results
This trial recruited 1,202 people with follicular lymphoma. They were put into 1 of 2 groups at random, and:

• 601 people had chemotherapy and obinutuzumab
• 601 people had chemotherapy and rituximab

The research team looked at how well the different treatments worked, and found that the lymphoma had gone away or got a bit better in:

• 532 people (89%) who had chemotherapy and obinutuzumab
• 522 people (87%) who had chemotherapy and rituximab

In 2017 they looked at the results to see how many people’s lymphoma had come back or got worse since treatment. They found it was higher for those who’d had rituximab:

• 66 people (11%) who’d had chemotherapy and obinutuzumab
• 98 people (16%) who’d had chemotherapy and rituximab

This means that people who had obinutuzumab are likely to have longer before their lymphoma starts to grow.

When they looked at how many people had died, they found it was similar in both groups:

• 35 people (6%) who’d had chemotherapy and obinutuzumab
• 46 people (8%) who’d had chemotherapy and rituximab

Side effects
The research team also looked at the side effects people had. More than 9 out of 10 people taking part had at least one side effect. But many were mild or short term.

A few more people who had obinutuzumab had side effects that were classed as serious. The most common side effects were a reaction to the injection, feeling sick and a drop in white blood cells.

Conclusion
The research team concluded that chemotherapy and obinutuzumab worked better than chemotherapy and rituximab for follicular lymphoma. But it caused more serious side effects.

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