What Coiffier had done included revolutionising treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Before research he published in 2002, standard treatment was cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP). Coiffier investigated the addition of rituximab, which significantly increased remission rates and survival for patients with this common lymphoma. “He pushed to design the study”, said Gilles Salles, who heads the haematology department of the Lyon Sud University Hospital and is a professor at Université Claude Bernard in France. “This has saved the lives of many patients in the world. Introducing rituximab with CHOP has significantly diminished the risk of death for patients with diffuse large B and all the lymphoma as an extension. It was a major step forward.” Coiffier and his colleagues from the Groupe d'Etude des Lymphomes de l'Adulte (GELA) also initiated studies into the benefits of the adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, vindesine, bleomycin, prednisone plus rituximab regimen on aggressive lymphomas in young patients. And Coiffier was instrumental in the development of the International Prognostic Index that helps predict the outcome for patients with DLBCL.