Research Highlights: Week of December 20, 2010

Beyond my own ramblings, here is an overview of some of the published work that may be of interest to people living with lymphoma, over the past week. I'm skipping over the recent material from ASH, which is of interest in itself. More on that later, perhaps, but there were plenty of interesting papers there, too. Here I look at the December 16 issue of Blood, the December 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, December 2010 issues of the British Journal of Cancer, CA, Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia, Lancet Oncology, and Leukemia & Lymphoma (as dense as always).

Radiation Therapy for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: New Evidence

A new Oncology article, with first author Chris Kelsey of Duke University, reviews existing findings about the use of radiation treatment in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Their take: radiation treatment is a useful consolidation treatment, meaning a short-term method for improving the results of the main treatment. (Contrast this with a maintenance therapy, which is a long-term method of accomplishing the same task; the classic example is the 2-year rituximab maintenance cycle).

This is bound to be a controversial study, given that there's still debate around the subject. Oncology knows it, too: they took the liberty of having a response prepared by Philip J. Bierman from Nebraska. Lymphoma patients should be aware of both perspectives. This is just another example of how the treatment of this cancer remains uncertain, where oncologists differ and have valid, if competing, reasons to do so. Never, ever, attempt to make a decision about your own life on the basis of a single study or even, unless you really have reason to trust it, a single opinion.