Current and future management of follicular lymphoma

Follicular lymphoma is usually considered as incurable, but patient's outcome has been steadily improving over the last decade. The introduction of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies represented a major step. Treatment of patients should take into account accurate staging results, symptoms related to lymphoma, tumor burden, age and comorbidities. Several options are still available for patients with localized or asymptomatic low risk disease, and randomized studies should be developed for those patients. When a systemic therapy is needed, the combination of rituximab with a few of the available cytotoxic regimens clearly provides the best results. Rituximab maintenance appears to further improve the progression-free interval. Since most patients will likely survive for many years, the quality and duration of response as well as the short- and long-term side effects of the treatments should be carefully weighted during this prolonged therapeutic management.