Olivier Hermine, MD, PhD

Because of challenges in making the correct diagnosis and the physician’s reluctance to administer chemotherapy for a disease characterized by such a low tumoral mass, patients may experience a delay in the initiation of appropriate treatment.

At the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, we presented the benefits of rituximab (Rituxan) combined with CHOP (cyclophosphamide [Cytoxan, Neosar], doxorubicin HCl, vincristine [Oncovin], prednisone), known as R-CHOP, in comparison with CHOP alone for the treatment of elderly patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLCL).