{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,12]],"date-time":"2026-08-12T08:33:03Z","timestamp":1786523583787,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)","content-domain":{"domain":["spj.science.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Health Data Sci"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    <jats:bold>Background:<\/jats:bold>\n                    While maintenance rituximab therapy (MT) for follicular lymphoma improves progression-free survival, individual benefit varies, creating a critical need to avoid overtreatment and its associated burdens.\n                    <jats:bold>Methods:<\/jats:bold>\n                    We developed a double machine learning framework using a retrospective 404-patient cohort to estimate the individualized treatment effect of MT on the risk of disease progression within 24 months.\n                    <jats:bold>Results:<\/jats:bold>\n                    Our model revealed heterogeneity in treatment benefit, successfully distinguishing patients most likely to benefit from those who are not. A retrospective simulated application identified a \u201clow-risk, low-benefit\u201d subgroup that might potentially forgo MT. Furthermore, aligning historical clinical decisions with our model\u2019s recommendations was associated with a lower progression rate compared to nonalignment (14.8% vs. 38.0%). Extensive sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of this treatment heterogeneity against potential unmeasured confounding and temporal practice shifts.\n                    <jats:bold>Conclusions:<\/jats:bold>\n                    Supported by an updated interactive clinical decision tool, this data-driven framework provides a robust strategy to personalize MT by separating prognostic risk from predictive benefit. It serves as a hypothesis-generating template to guide future prospective risk-adapted trials and reduce unnecessary treatment in oncology.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.34133\/hds.0467","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T06:51:09Z","timestamp":1776235869000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34133\/aaas_crossmark_01","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Personalizing Maintenance Rituximab in Follicular Lymphoma: A Machine Learning Framework for Risk\u2013Benefit Optimization"],"prefix":"10.34133","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4951-8682","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Junyi","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education\/Beijing), Department of Lymphoma, \rPeking University Cancer Hospital &amp; Institute, Beijing, China."},{"name":"Centre for Medical Informatics, \rUniversity of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK."},{"name":"Health Data Research UK","place":["UK"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiaxin","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education\/Beijing), Department of Lymphoma, \rPeking University Cancer Hospital &amp; Institute, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinze","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Meng","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education\/Beijing), Department of Lymphoma, \rPeking University Cancer Hospital &amp; Institute, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rongyi","family":"Cui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yannan","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhixin","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yinghao","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yasha","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuqin","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education\/Beijing), Department of Lymphoma, \rPeking University Cancer Hospital &amp; Institute, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ewen M.","family":"Harrison","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Medical Informatics, \rUniversity of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lan","family":"Mi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education\/Beijing), Department of Lymphoma, \rPeking University Cancer Hospital &amp; Institute, Beijing, China."},{"name":"Department of Automation, \rTsinghua University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liantao","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Engineering Research Center for Software Engineering, \rPeking University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yan","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education\/Beijing), Department of Lymphoma, \rPeking University Cancer Hospital &amp; 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