Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF HAEMATOLOGY
Volume 74, Issue 4, Pages 348-352Publisher
WILEY-BLACKWELL
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0609.2004.00401.x
Keywords
CNS lymphoma; rituximab; 123-iodine; SPECT
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Most patients with primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma (PCNSL) relapse after initial response to chemotherapy or the combination of chemotherapy and irradiation. Thus, novel treatment regimens for relapsed PCNSL are needed. As the majority of PCNSL are B-cell neoplasms expressing the CD20 antigen, treatment with the chimeric monoclonal antibody (MAb) rituximab might be reasonable. Nevertheless, the potential efficacy of intravenous rituximab in PCNSL seems to be limited as MAbs are high molecular weight proteins, which might be unable to pass the blood brain barrier. Thus, we performed dosimetric measurements with iodine-123 (I-123)-rituximab to evaluate rituximab uptake in PCNSL after systemic intravenous administration. We analyzed four patients with PCNSL receiving a preinfusion of 250 mg/m(2) rituximab followed by 200-500 MBq of the gamma-emitter I-123-rituximab. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was performed 1, 24 and 48 h after administration of the radio-immunoconstruct. Only one patient showed a very weak or questionable uptake of I-123-rituximab into tumor tissue which was ninefold lower compared with the blood-pool accumulation. These data suggest that systemic MAb-based radio-immunotherapy is not feasible in patients with PCNSL because a sufficient activity in the tumor will be associated with severe hematotoxicity. If an uptake of therapeutic rituximab doses into PCNSL can be achieved remains questionable.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available