WEDNESDAY, Oct. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Doxycycline is a safe and effective treatment for ocular adnexal lymphoma linked to chlamydia infection, researchers report in the Oct. 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Andres J.M. Ferreri, M.D., of the San Raffaele H Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, and colleagues treated 27 ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma patients with three weeks of doxycycline, and assessed the patients' lymphoma and chlamydia status at intervals afterwards. Sixteen patients tested negative and 11 tested positive for Chlamydia psittaci DNA.
A median of 14 months after treatment, the researchers found lymphoma had completely abated in six patients, and lesions had diminished 50 percent or more in seven others.
Lymphoma regressed in 64 percent of patients testing positive and 38 percent of patients testing negative for C. psittaci DNA. Sixty-six percent survived two years failure-free; lymphoma stopped progressing in 20 patients.
"Doxycycline is a fast, safe, and active therapy for C. psittaci DNA-positive ocular adnexal lymphoma," the authors write. "The responses observed in polymerase chain reaction-negative ocular adnexal lymphoma may suggest a need for development of more sensitive methods for C. psittaci detection and investigation of the potential role of other doxycycline-sensitive bacteria."
In an editorial, Emanuele Zucca, M.D., of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and a colleague caution that "many questions remain unanswered."
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