High-dose Myeloablative Radioimmunotherapy of Mantle Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma with the Iodine-131-labeled Chimeric Anti-Cd20 Antibody C2B8 and Autologous Stem Cell Support

CD20 has been used successfully as a target molecule for conventional low‐dose, as well as high‐dose, myeloablative radioimmunotherapy (RIT) of B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an especially aggressive, prognostically unfavorable subtype of B‐cell NHL, associated with an overall 5‐year survival rate of less than 20%. Recent evidence has failed to show convincing therapeutic efficacy of conventional, nonmyeloablative RIT in patients with MCL. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate whether high‐dose, myeloablative RIT with the iodine‐131 (131I)–labeled chimeric anti‐CD20 antibody C2B8 (rituximab, obtained as Mabthera from Roche Pharma, Reinach, Switzerland) is therapeutically effective in MCL patients.