Managing follicular lymphoma

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Changes in how follicular lymphoma (FL) is managed have led to substantial improvement in prognosis and over all survival. Some patients with limited disease stages I and II may achieve durable response from radiotherapy; however, whether these patients are cured is unclear. New approaches such as combination therapy (eg, irradiation with rituximab) or single-agent rituximab should be explored. The current standard for stage III and IV disease with low tumor burden is a watch and wait strategy, but better indices are needed for selecting patients for whom early intervention is preferred. Immunochemotherapy followed by 2 years of rituximab maintenance is widely accepted as standard therapy for advanced stages with high tumor burden; however, retreatment may be an alternative option for recurrent disease. In addition, new therapeutic options have recently arisen from new antibodies, as well as new targeted therapies and immunomodulatory drugs that may lead to chemotherapy-free therapies in the near future.