This Saturday Cephalon Inc. declared that its experimental cancer drug Treanda proved to be “significantly” effective in treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) that had progressed during treatment with Rituxan.

The study conducted on 100 patients led to a high rate of response as it was presented at the American Society of Hematology
annual meeting in Atlanta. In order for the treatment to prove significant it should have achieved response in at least 60 percent of trial patients and o duration of response of at least 6 months.

During the trial 75 percent of patients responded to Treanda with a median duration of response of 9.2 months. Researchers considered results statistically significant. The results suggested that, Treanda also known as bendamustine “could offer substantial periods of remission to patients with indolent (slow growing) NHL whose cancer is progressing after treatment with rituximab," as Brad Kahl, the lead researcher stated. Researchers are interested in finding new treatments as many patients with NHL become resistant to treatment with rituximab and other therapies.

Cephalon said that it will use this study to obtain the Food and Drug Administration's approval of Treanda to be used in patients’ population and it will send these data by the end of this year.

The drug is administrated intravenously for about 60 minutes and had a common side effect in low white blood cell count with fever and pneumonia.