Subset of Patients With Follicular Lymphoma Can Achieve Cure With CHOP-Based Chemoimmunotherapy

FRIDAY, March 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) — For patients with untreated, advanced-stage follicular lymphoma (FL), chemoimmunotherapy with cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin/doxorubicin, Oncovin (vincristine sulfate), and prednisone/prednisolone (CHOP)-based regimens can yield cure, according to a study published online Feb. 26 in JAMA Oncology.

Mazyar Shadman, M.D., from Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle, and colleagues conducted a multicenter study involving patients with untreated, advanced-stage FL to assess the potential for long-term remission and cure. Patients were randomly assigned to receive rituximab plus CHOP (R-CHOP) or CHOP followed by radioimmunotherapy (CHOP-RIT; 267 and 264, respectively).

The researchers found that 15-year overall survival was 70 percent, with no significant difference between treatment arms; 15-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 40 percent. Compared with R-CHOP, CHOP-RIT demonstrated superior 15-year PFS (47 versus 34 percent).

Cure modeling, which involved incorporating background mortality rates to estimate the proportion of patients cured of FL, estimated an overall cure rate of 42 percent. Patients with low Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index scores and normal β2 microglobulin levels had the highest cure rates. Over time, there was a substantial decline in the rate of relapse, from 6.8 percent during the first five years to 0.6 percent between 15 and 20 years.

“These results reinforce that front-line chemoimmunotherapy remains an important option — particularly for appropriate patients — because it can deliver long-term disease control after a time-limited course of treatment,” Shadman said in a statement.

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