Three Italian Multicenter Studies Report High (>70%) Rates of Complete Remission (CR) Utilizing Zevalin Radio-Immunotherapy (RIT) in Treatment of Newly Diagnosed or Relapsed or Refractory Non-Hodgkin'...( SEATTLE Dec. 9 /- Cell Therapeutics I...),Health

SEATTLE, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq and MTA: CTIC) announced today that the results of three Italian multicenter studies utilizing Zevalin(R) ([90Y]-ibritumomab tiuxetan) were presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 50th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

In one presentation, the Italian Cooperative Study Group in a phase II study investigated the use of single dose Zevalin as sole initial treatment in 15 patients with advanced stage (III-IV) follicular NHL. Ninety-three percent (93%) of patients had a response with 73% achieving a complete remission (CR). At a median follow-up of 10 months, 93% of patients are alive, with 71% in continuous CR. No patients required hematopoietic growth factors. Hematologic toxicity was low and quickly reversible; 7 patients developed grade 3 thrombocytopenia and 5 required platelet transfusions.

In a second presentation, investigators from the European Institute of Oncology, Milan treated 13 patients with relapsed or refractory primary gastric NHL including 9 patients with Mucosa Associated Lymphoid Tissue or MALT with a single dose of Zevalin. Ten of 13 patients achieved a CR with all 9 patients (100%) with MALT achieving a CR. Toxicities were mainly hematologic and reversible. After a median follow up of 36 months 9 of 10 CR's (90%) are disease free.

The potential benefits of RIT with Zevalin combined with BEAM conditioning regimen (Z-BEAM) followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for patients who fail to achieve a CR after front line rituximab containing multi- agent chemotherapy for advanced NHL was also presented. The results of the Italian Multicenter Study demonstrated that among 53 patients who failed to achieve CR after CHOP-R, the Z-BEAM followed by ASCT resulted in a 74% CR rate. At a median follow up of 175 days post transplant 40 patients (75%) are alive, 30 patients (57%) in CR. Four
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