Clinical Use and Efficacy of Ibritumomab in B Cell Lymphoma

Ibritumomab tiuxetan labeled with yttrium-90 (90Y) is one of the excellent therapeutic options for patients with low-grade B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who have relapsed disease after first-line chemotherapy regimens and are reluctant to the precedent therapy. The overall response rate (ORR) of 80–90% and the complete response rate (CR) of 30–69% have been reported for patients with relapsed or refractory low-grade B cell NHL. It has also an established role as a consolidation therapy agent after first-line chemotherapy. Ibritumomab tiuxetan has also proved to be an efficient and feasible treatment option as first-line therapy. The short-term toxicity associated with ibritumomab tiuxetan is mainly reversible bone marrow suppression. For diffuse large B cell lymphoma, which is the most frequent NHL subtype, ibritumomab tiuxetan has been also introduced as conditioning therapy added to conventional conditioning regimens before stem cell transplantation.