People with follicular lymphoma whose treatment failed were apt to survive longer if they received autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (auto-HCT) within 1 year of such failure, according to a study involving nearly 350 individuals. Participants were from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research program or the National LymphoCare Study. They had received rituximab-based chemotherapy as frontline treatment, and then either underwent (n=175) or did not undergo (n=174) auto-HCT. Among the results:

• 5-year overall survival rates were statistically similar (67% and 60%, respectively).
• Among those with early treatment failure, patients who received transplant <1 year after such failure had a 73% overall survival rate, compared with 60% in the contingent who did not receive transplant.
• Patients receiving early transplant saw their mortality risk reduced by 37%.