We conducted an international, randomized, phase III trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of consolidation with yttrium-90 (⁹⁰Y)–ibritumomab tiuxetan in patients with advanced-stage follicular lymphoma in first remission.

Patients with CD20⁺ stage III or IV follicular lymphoma, who achieved a complete response (CR)/unconfirmed CR (CRu) or partial response (PR) after first-line induction treatment, were randomly assigned to receive ⁹⁰Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (rituximab 250 mg/m² on day −7 and day 0 followed on day 0 by ⁹⁰Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan 14.8 MBq/kg; maximum of 1,184 MBq) or no further treatment (control). The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS), which was calculated from the time of random assignment.

A total of 414 patients (consolidation, n = 208; control, n = 206) were enrolled at 77 centers. ⁹⁰Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan consolidation significantly prolonged median PFS (after a median observation time of 3.5 years) in all patients (36.5 v 13.3 months in control arm; hazard ratio [HR] = 0.465; P < .0001) and regardless of whether patients achieved PR (29.3 v 6.2 months in control arm; HR = 0.304; P < .0001) or CR/CRu (53.9 v 29.5 months in control arm; HR = 0.613; P = .0154) after induction treatment. Median PFS with consolidation was prolonged in all Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index risk subgroups. After ⁹⁰Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan consolidation, 77% of patients in PR after induction converted to CR/CRu, resulting in a final CR rate of 87%. The most common toxicity with ⁹⁰Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan was hematologic, and grade 3 or 4 infections occurred in 8% of patients.

Consolidation of first remission with ⁹⁰Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in advanced-stage follicular lymphoma is highly effective with no unexpected toxicities, prolonging PFS by 2 years and resulting in high PR-to-CR conversion rates regardless of type of first-line induction treatment.