Conditions: Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma
Keywords: non-Hodgkins lymphoma stem cell transplant
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 21
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Researchers hope to learn if adding rituximab with high doses of chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation will help patients get rid of their lymphoma cells from the bone marrow and stem cell collections.

Detailed description:
Following the first relapse, patients with follicular type of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma may have an option to receive high dose chemotherapy followed by autologous (from you) blood stem cell transplantation. One of the common causes of relapse is persistence of lymphoma cells in the bone marrow and in the collected stem cell products.

Patients who do not have a complete response after traditional chemotherapy, have a greater chance of the lymphoma returning even after receiving high dose chemotherapy with stem cell transplantation. In order to improve the response and decrease the relapse rate, additional therapy may be used to kill the lymphoma cells by using antibodies both before and after the transplantation. Antibodies are protein made by white cells in our body to fight off infection and sometimes tumor. Rituxan (rituximab) is an antibody that is effective against your type of lymphoma. Researchers have reported that patients show an improved response and a lower chance of relapse when using rituximab with high dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation. It is unknown how effective rituximab is in clearing persistence of minimal remaining disease in patients with follicular lymphoma.

Arms:
arm 1: Patients will be treated IV with rituximab at the rate of 50 milligrams per hour (mg/hour) for 1 hour. If patient tolerates the infusion, the rate is increased by increments of 50 mg/hour every 30 minutes to a maximum of 400 mg/hour. If patient has a severe reaction, the infusion is stopped temporarily and the infusion rate is decreased by 50%. Subsequent infusions are started at the rate of 100 mg/hour, increased by 100 mg/hour every 30 minutes to a maximum of 400 mg/hour if tolerated. Vital signs are monitored every 15 minutes for 2 hours and every 30 minutes thereafter.

Interventions: intervention 1: Rituximab
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 375 MG/M2 (milligram per meter squared) given IV (intravenously) weekly x 4-8 doses.

Protocol document: