Andrea Blevins Primeau, PhD, MBA
The results of this study suggest that upfront, early-stage follicular lymphoma (FL) treatment with RT is safe and results in excellent outcomes. Importantly, these results are of “more than 500 patients, all of whom have been treated in a contemporary fashion with PET staging,” Dr Hoppe said, highlighting that it is typically challenging to evaluate a large number of patients because FL is so uncommon.
Dr Hoppe recommends that oncologists and hematologists with a patient diagnosed with FL who has been PET-staged with stage I or stage II disease seek the opinion of a radiation oncologist. “That doesn’t commit the patient to being treated by a radiation oncologist, but you can properly inform the patient [of] the potential risks and benefits of treatment.” He further highlighted that “this gives the patient the best opportunity to participate in making an informed decision as to what the treatment should be.”
