A new study finds that the antibiotic doxycycline can treat a certain type of lymphoma that starts in the eye. The discovery could simplify treatment for patients and help researchers understand what causes this cancer. The study, by researchers from Italy's San Raffaele H Scientific Institute, appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Eye lymphomas belong to a class called MALT lymphomas. The most common MALT lymphoma starts in the stomach. In the past few years scientists have learned that MALT lymphomas of the stomach are associated with an infection by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. It turns out that treating the H. pylori infection with potent antibiotic combinations will not only eliminate the H. pylori, but also cause the lymphoma to regress. This has made antibiotics the standard treatment for MALT lymphomas of the stomach and many patients have been cured without using radiation or chemotherapy.
Eye lymphomas that start in the lids or tissue covering the eye (called conjunctiva) are also of the MALT type, leading investigators to suspect bacterial infection as their cause as well. They discovered that many eye lymphomas are associated with an infection with a bacterium called Chlamydia psittaci. The authors of the present study looked to see if antibiotic treatment of this infection would cause the lymphoma to regress.
The authors say doxycycline appears to be a good alternative to radiation and chemotherapy for patients with eye lymphoma. It is safe, effective, and free of any serious side effects. However, until more studies are done to examine this therapy, they say patients should only get this treatment within a clinical trial. A clinical trial labeled IELSG 27 has started to look at the role of antibiotics in treating eye lymphomas and testing to see which antibiotics are the most effective.
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