The New York Times profiles the low usage of two drugs, Bexxar and Zevalin, which have great potential for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The article begins with the profiles of three non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients who have been cancer-free for a few years, all after one treatment with Bexxar or Zevalin.Other lymphoma drugs are preferred as first-line treatments, but doctors often continue to use them even when they lose their effectiveness and when Bexxar and Zevalin might work better. Why? According to the article, one reason is financial incentive. Because the drugs are radioactive, they must be administered in a hospital, not a doctor's office. Therefore, oncologists do not get paid for prescribing them, as they are when they give chemotherapy. Unfortunately, once Bexxar or Zevalin are finally used, often after many rounds of other treatments, they are less likely to succeed because the cancer has progressed in the meantime.
Although the drugs have not been clinically proven to prolong survival yet, trials are in motion. Patients are more likely to respond to them than standard treatments, however.
Zevalin and Bexxar are in a class of drugs call radioimmunotherapies. This class of drugs delivers radioactive particles directly to cancer cells. The drugs are quite expensive, but because one dose is often enough, the cost ends up being close to the cost of a full four-month regimen of chemotherapy and Rituxan.
Betsy deParry, one of the patient's profiled in the article said, "It's not that I believe that radioimmunotherapy is right for everybody. I just think that patients, all patients, should know their options."
Follicular lymphoma
