A Steuben County man has been cancer-free for two decades following treatment through a clinical trial at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Wilmot Cancer Institute, where new research shows some patients with advanced follicular lymphoma may now be considered cured.
Robert Oman, 65, of Campbell, completed treatment in 2006 as part of a phase 3 trial studying therapies for advanced-stage follicular lymphoma, a disease long considered incurable because it often returns years later.
Newly published long-term results from the trial, released in JAMA Oncology, show that 70% of patients survived at least 15 years after completing treatment with a standard chemoimmunotherapy regimen built around CHOP — a combination of cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, vincristine and prednisone.
Researchers also found that 42% of treated patients were considered functionally cured, meaning they had no chance of the lymphoma returning during their expected lifetime.
“When we started this trial 25 years ago, advanced-stage follicular lymphoma was considered incurable,” said Wilmot Director Dr. Jonathan W. Friedberg, who led the new study. “We expected the CHOP chemoimmunothreapy to be better than the standard treatment of the day, but never expected it would be curative. The fact that a subset of patients achieved cure is truly remarkable.”
The study tracked 531 patients with untreated advanced-stage follicular lymphoma. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either rituximab plus CHOP, known as R-CHOP, or CHOP followed by radioimmunotherapy, known as CHOP-RIT. Forty-five patients enrolled through Wilmot.
Oman received CHOP-RIT after his lymphoma returned in 2005, along with a tumor on his kidney. His local oncologist at Guthrie Corning Hospital referred him to Wilmot for the trial.
At age 40, with three sons at home, Oman said treatment was not something he had originally planned to pursue. His father had battled lymphoma decades earlier, enduring seven rounds of chemotherapy as the cancer repeatedly returned.
“My dad was in his 60s when we had it,” Oman said. “He lived for 14 years, but he took seven rounds of chemo. It always came back. It would be like two years, and the cancer always came back.”
Oman said the trial treatment lasted six to eight months and did not significantly disrupt his life. He missed only a few days of work at his job on a Cornell University potato farm and continued running his own farm during treatment.
“It was a temporary thing for six or eight months, and then I got back in the game,” he said.
According to the study, relapse rates dropped sharply over time. About 6.8% of patients experienced a recurrence within the first five years after treatment. Between 15 and 20 years after treatment, that rate fell to just 0.6%.
Now two decades cancer-free, Oman says he has lived a normal life, watching his three sons grow up and celebrating milestones with his grandchildren.
“I was extremely lucky and blessed to be able to see our first two grandchildren grow up, and now we’re starting a new chapter in our life with our newest grandson, born last October,” he said. “Having been through cancer, I appreciate life a little bit better.”
Researchers say the findings mark a significant shift in how advanced follicular lymphoma is understood and treated, offering long-term hope to patients facing a diagnosis once viewed as a lifelong disease.
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