In vitro, the addition of rituximab to standard anticancer drugs increases cell lyses even in chemoresistant cell lines. This chemosensitization effect was also demonstrated in vivo by the results of the GELA trial in elderly patients with DLCL. Reported phase II study results on the RICE regimen for treatment of patients with relapsed DLCL and comparison with historical controls being treated with ICE suggests that this effect (15% improvement in response rate) is likely in relapsing DLCL and had led the SWOG to stop a randomized trial comparing ICE vs RICE in patients with relapsed aggressive lymphoma.