Management of localized low-grade follicular lymphomas

Long-term follow-up data from Stanford and other centres suggest that 40-50% of patients with clinical stages I and II follicular low-grade lymphoma can be cured by radiotherapy (RT). Relapse generally occurs outside radiation fields and most relapsed patients ultimately die from lymphoma. No randomized data exist to support adjuvant chemotherapy but only one trial of low-intensity chemotherapy was sufficiently powerful to address the question. Nevertheless, data from a large phase-II study from MD Anderson suggest that combined chemotherapy and RT can produce progression-free survival results that are far superior to historical series, with survival at 10 years to be approximately 20% superior to radiation alone. These results have encouraged the development of a joint phase III study by the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) and the Australasian Leukaemia and Lymphoma Group (ALLG) in which patients with clinical stage I/II follicular lymphoma are randomized to involved field RT with or without six cycles of cytotoxic chemotherapy. In an era of rapid development in immunological and molecular therapies the potential for improved results with new combinations of more established treatment modalities should not be forgotten. This report reviews the literature on the management of localized low-grade lymphoma and discusses the rationale for the TROG/ALLG study, which began recruitment in early 2000.