Treatment Tally

When Wendy Harpham was diagnosed in 1990, she began treatment with what was then the standard protocol, but by her second recurrence she moved to a clinical trial for IDEC C2B8, the research name for the drug later approved as Rituxan in 1997. In each case she either had a complete response, meaning disappearance of disease for at least three months, or a partial response, indicating a decrease in tumor size of at least 30 percent. [Outside of clinical trials, a partial response is defined as a reduction in tumor size of at least 50 percent.] Here is a rundown of Wendy’s treatments over the past two decades.

November 1990: DIAGNOSIS

[Stage 3 indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma]

• >Treated with ProMACE-MOPP chemotherapy [cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, etoposide, mechlor-ethamine, vincristine, prednisone, procarbazine and methotrexate with leucovorin rescue] >Complete response
• JUNE 1992: RECURRENCE

• >Treated with minimantle radiation therapy [radiation to lower jaw, neck and upper chest] >Bone marrow harvest in August 1992 >Complete response
• JANUARY 1993: RECURRENCE

• >Treated with interferon until May 1993 >Phase I trial with IDEC C2B8 [Rituxan] >Partial response
• FEBRUARY 1994: RECURRENCE
• >Phase II trial with Rituxan until May 1994 >Complete response
• FEBRUARY 1995: RECURRENCE
• >Treated with fludarabine, mitroxantrone, dexamethasone chemotherapy until October 1995 >Complete response
• MAY 1997: RECURRENCE
• >Phase II trial with Rituxan >Complete response
• MAY 1998: RECURRENCE
• >Treated with Rituxan until June 1998 >Complete response
• DECEMBER 2005: RECURRENCE
• >Treated with GM-CSF [granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor] and Rituxan >Complete response

CURRENT STATUS: IN REMISSION

• >Maintenance Rituxan therapy with GM-CSF