Combination therapies for b-cell lymphomas comprising administration of Anti-cd20 antibody

Abstract

New combined therapeutic regimens for treatment of B-cell lymphomas are disclosed which comprise, in particular, administration of anti-CD20 antibodies to patients having low-, intermediate- or high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 840,956, filed Aug. 18, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 196,732, filed Jul. 17, 2002 (abandoned), which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 372,202, filed Aug. 11, 1999, (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,043) which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. Section 119(e) and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 096,180 filed Aug. 11, 1998, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to the use of anti-CD20 antibodies or fragments thereof in the treatment of B-cell lymphomas, particularly the use of such antibodies and fragments in combined therapeutic regimens.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The use of antibodies to the CD20 antigen as diagnostic and / or therapeutic agents for B-cell lymphoma has previously been ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]The present invention discloses combined therapeutic treatments for B-cell lymphomas, and reports the benefits of treating relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas with chimeric and radiolabeled anti-CD20 antibodies. In particular, it has been found that treatment with anti-CD20 antibody provides a beneficial synergistic effect when administered in combination with cytokines, radiotherapy, myeloablative therapy, or chemotherapy. Surprisingly, patients who had prior bone marrow or stem cell transplantation had an unexpected increase in the over-all response rate when compared with patients with no prior therapy.

Problems solved by technology

However, while anti-CD20 antibodies and, in particular, RITUXAN® (U.S.; in Britain, MABTHERA®; in general Rituximab), have been reported to be effective for treatment of B-cell lymphomas, such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the treated patients are often subject to disease relapse.