Treanda® Included in NCCN Guidelines for CLL and NHL

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Treanda® Included in NCCN Guidelines for CLL and NHL

CancerConsultants.com - News 5/5/2008

The chemotherapy agent Treanda® (bendamustine) has been added to the treatment

guidelines of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) as an accepted

treatment option for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and non-Hodgkin's

lymphoma (NHL).

Leukemias and lymphomas are both cancers that originate in the cells of the

immune system. There are several different subgroups of both leukemias and

lymphomas, with treatment options varying widely across these subgroups.

Among leukemias, CLL tends to be a slower-growing type of leukemia, affecting

mainly elderly patients. Follicular and mantle-cell lymphoma are two types of

lymphomas that also tend to be slow-growing types of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but

whose characteristics can be varied according to the stage of the disease, as

well as other patient and/or disease variables such as genetic mutations.

The NCCN is an alliance of 21 leading cancer centers. The NCCN has developed

treatment guidelines for most types of cancer, including NHL and leukemia, and

updates their guidelines annually. This year, the chemotherapy agent Treanda was

added to updated guidelines including follicular NHL, mantle-cell NHL, and CLL.

Treanda was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the

treatment of CLL among patients who had stopped responding to the chemotherapy

agent chlorambucil (Leukeran®).

The 2008 NCCN treatment guideline updates that include Treanda are the

following:

a.. Treanda as a single agent as initial therapy for CLL

b.. Treanda as a single agent or in combination with Rituxan® (rituximab) for

treatment of CLL that has recurred following prior therapy (second-line therapy)

c.. Treanda with or without Rituxan as second-line therapy for follicular

lymphoma or mantle-cell lymphoma

Patients with CLL, follicular lymphoma, or mantle-cell lymphoma may wish to

speak with their physician regarding their individual risks and benefits of

treatment with Treanda or other novel therapeutic approaches.

Reference: The National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN Updates Non-Hodgkin's

Lymphoma Guidelines. Available at:

http://www.nccn.org/about/news/newsinfo.asp?NewsID=136. Accessed May 2008.