Cephalon's Treanda wins US approval in lymphoma

LOS ANGELES, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Cephalon Inc (CEPH.O) won U.S. approval to sell its chemotherapy drug Treanda for treatment of patients with a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the company said on Friday.

The drug was previously approved in March by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of leukemia in the United States.

The latest approval applies to Treanda for the treatment of patients with indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) that has progressed despite treatment with Rituxan, or a regimen containing Rituxan, known generically as rituximab.

An estimated 30,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed this year with indolent NHL, a slow-growing cancer of the lymphatic system, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Cephalon said a pivotal trial of Treanda showed that it delays progression of the disease for more than nine months. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; editing by Carol Bishopric)