A Cornwall based drugs trial has been shown to be effective in halting the progress of blood cancer, its producers have reported.

Data from the Phase III GALLIUM study, conducted at the Royal Cornwall Hospital has been presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) congress, showing the potential of obinutuzumab as a first-line treatment for follicular lymphoma (FL).

Cornish trials of the drug, produced by multinational pharmaceutical company Roche, show that targeted treatment plus chemotherapy can reduce the risk of the disease progressing or a patient dying by 34 per cent compared to the drug currently used to treat the disease.

And 92 per cent of patients receiving obinutuzumab showed no detectable sign of disease in the blood or bone marrow, although most patients with FL will eventually relapse, and their prognosis is poor with each subsequent remission, so there is a real need for better initial therapies.

The drug was found to cause direct death of cancer cells as well as getting the body’s immune system to attack and destroy them.

It increased the time to the next treatment by 32 per cent, with no new adverse events effects, although the most common severe side-effects associated current treatment drug rituximab were still present.

The results also showed at the end of initial therapy, 92 per cent of patients receiving obinutuzumab in combination with chemotherapy, showed no detectable sign of disease in the blood or bone marrow, compared to 85 per cent of patients receiving the rituximab plus chemotherapy combination.

Dr Robert Marcus, consultant haematologist at King’s College Hospital, said: “Since the incorporation of rituximab into first-line therapy for patients with follicular lymphoma, the outlook for these patients has improved significantly. This is due first to the addition of rituximab to induction therapy and secondly as maintenance with the PFS virtually double than that seen a decade ago.” "Most, if not all these patients, will eventually relapse with subsequent remissions shorter than the first and the 20 per cent of patients relapsing within three years, have a particularly poor prognosis. This is why the results from the GALLIUM trial, where obinutuzumab-based chemotherapy was compared to rituximab-based treatment, are so important with a predicted increase in PFS to over eight years in patients in the obinutuzumab arm. Fewer patients are relapsing early, which may give this group more therapeutic options, and the complete remission rates with lower intensity regimens, are increased with obinutuzumab, broadening the applicability of combination therapy to frailer patients. We are optimistic that the early adoption of obinutuzumab-based therapy will further improve the outlook for patients with follicular lymphoma."