A trial of lenalidomide and rituximab for follicular lymphoma or marginal zone lymphoma (AUGMENT)

When this trial was done, doctors usually treated follicular lymphoma or marginal zone lymphoma that had come back with rituximab and chemotherapy. Sometimes the lymphoma came back again. Doctors often gave more rituximab on its own if that happened.

Researchers wanted to find out if having lenalidomide as well as rituximab might work better. When this trial was done, lenalidomide was already being used for some types of lymphoma and myeloma.

Lenalidomide works in several ways. It:

• stops the signals that cancer cells use to divide and grow
• helps the immune system  to recognise cancer cells
• stops the cancer developing new blood vessels

This was a phase 3 trial. People taking part were put into a treatment group at random. They either had:

• rituximab and lenalidomide
• rituximab and a dummy drug (placebo)

The main aims of the trial were to find out:

• how well the combination of rituximab and lenalidomide works
• more about the side effects of having lenalidomide and rituximab together