High-dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell rescue in patients with relapsed Hodgkin's disease

Follow-up of the GHSG HD16 trial of PET-guided treatment in early-stage favorable Hodgkin lymphoma

The primary analysis of the GHSG HD16 trial indicated a significant loss of tumor control with PET-guided omission of radiotherapy (RT) in patients with early-stage favorable Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). This analysis reports long-term outcomes. Overall, 1150 patients aged 18-75 years with newly diagnosed early-stage favorable HL were randomized between standard combined-modality treatment (CMT) (2x ABVD followed by PET/CT [PET-2] and 20 Gy involved-field RT) and PET-2-guided treatment omitting RT in case of PET-2 negativity (Deauville score [DS] < 3). The study aimed at excluding inferiority of PET-2-guided treatment and assessing the prognostic impact of PET-2 in patients receiving CMT. At a median follow-up of 64 months, PET-2-negative patients had a 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) of 94.2% after CMT (n = 328) and 86.7% after ABVD alone (n = 300; HR = 2.05 [1.20-3.51]; p = 0.0072). 5-year OS was 98.3% and 98.8%, respectively (p = 0.14); 4/12 documented deaths were caused by second primary malignancies and only one by HL. Among patients assigned to CMT, 5-year PFS was better in PET-2-negative (n = 353; 94.0%) than in PET-2-positive patients (n = 340; 90.3%; p = 0.012). The difference was more pronounced when using DS4 as cut-off (DS 1-3: n = 571; 94.0% vs. DS ≥ 4: n = 122; 83.6%; p < 0.0001). Taken together, CMT should be considered standard treatment for early-stage favorable HL irrespective of the PET-2-result.

Comparison of BEAM vs. LEAM regimen in autologous transplant for lymphoma at AIIMS

BEAM (BCNU, etoposide, cytrabine, melphalan) is the most widely used high dose chemotherapy regimen for autologous transplant in lymphoid malignancies. We report our early experience with an alternative regimen LEAM where BCNU was replaced with the oral analogue CCNU (lomustine) to tide over the non-availability of BCNU. Fifty one patients of relapsed or refractory lymphoma who received BEAM (n= 34) and LEAM (n= 17) from September 2001 to February 2012 were analyzed. From October 2009 onwards LEAM was used as the conditioning regimen instead of conventional BEAM. Patients in the LEAM group had more chemorefractory disease (35% vs 9%, p = 0.045) and high risk comorbidity score (24% vs 0%, p = 0.019). Grade 3 and 4 oral mucositis (67.6% vs. 64.7%, p = 0.834) and diarrhea (47% vs. 41.1%, p = 0.691) were similar. No difference was noted between the two groups in terms of engraftment, documented infections, antibiotic use, cumulative toxicity risk, length of hospital stay and 100 day transplant related mortality. The estimated 2 year overall survival (61.7% vs. 62.7%, p = 0.928) and event free survival (44.6% vs. 41.1%, p = 0.510) of the regimens BEAM and LEAM respectively were comparable. Thus LEAM appeared equivalent to BEAM in terms of toxicity and efficacy and can be used as an alternative to BEAM.

Impact of conditioning regimen on outcome of 2-year disease-free survivors of autologous stem cell transplantation for Hodgkin lymphoma

BACKGROUND

Autologous stem cell transplantation is the standard of care for patients with relapsed HL and the long-term outcomes for survivors 2 years after ASCT have not been well described. No prospective trials have compared the effect of different conditioning regimens on outcomes.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We searched the Nebraska Lymphoma Study Group database to identify patients with HL who received ASCT from 1984 to 2007. Patients were conditioned with either CBV (cyclophosphamide, carmustine, and etoposide) or BEAM (carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan).

RESULTS

At a median follow-up of 8 (range, 2-26) years, 225 patients were alive and disease-free 2 years after ASCT. Analysis was limited to these patients. At 5 years, the progression-free survival (PFS) was 92% for BEAM and 73% for CBV (P = .002) and the overall survival (OS) was 95% for BEAM and 87% for CBV (P = .07). At 10 years, the PFS was 79% for BEAM and 59% for CBV (P = .01) and the OS was 84% for BEAM and 66% for CBV (P = .02).

CONCLUSION

Patients with HL who are disease-free and alive 2 years after ASCT have favorable outcomes. We observed lower risk of progression and longer survival associated with use of BEAM vs. CBV. Patients in the BEAM group received a transplant in more recent years so we cannot exclude the possibility that the superior outcomes seen in the BEAM group are because of better supportive care, use of peripheral blood stem cell grafts, or improvements in salvage therapies before transplantation.

Haematopoietic SCT for children and adolescents with relapsed and refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma

Despite the generally excellent prognosis of children and adolescents with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), approximately 15% of patients relapse. Salvage therapy options include further chemo-radiotherapy and autologous or allogeneic haematopoietic SCT (HSCT). Autologous HSCT following high-dose chemotherapy, the standard treatment for adult patients with relapsed HL, is also effective in paediatric patients, but randomized trials showing its superiority to conventional therapy are lacking. Although patients with late relapse (>12 months after completion of therapy) may be cured with conventional therapy, those with progressive disease or early relapse (3-12 months) are considered candidates for autologous HSCT. According to patient selection criteria, overall and disease-free survival rates after autologous HSCT are 43-95% and 31-70%, respectively. Short time to relapse and refractory disease at the time of autologous HSCT remain the most important risk factors. Data on allogeneic HSCT in children with HL are scarce. Broader use has been hampered for a long time mainly by high non-relapse mortality, offsetting the advantage of a graft-vs-lymphoma effect. Data suggest that young patients with recurring disease following autologous HSCT, as well as some patients with multiple relapses and selected patients with refractory lymphoma, might benefit from allogeneic HSCT, but relapse remains the major challenge.

Long-term outcome of Hodgkin disease patients following high-dose busulfan, etoposide, cyclophosphamide, and autologous stem cell transplantation

Busulfan (Bu)-based preparative regimens have not been extensively investigated in Hodgkin disease (HD). The purposes of this study were to investigate the toxicity and efficacy of a novel preparative regimen of Bu 14 mg/kg, etoposide 50-60 mg/kg, and cyclophosphamide 120 mg/kg in patients with primary refractory and relapsed HD. One hundred twenty-seven patients with a median age of 33 years (range, 14-67 years) underwent transplantation. The regimen was well tolerated, with 5.5% treatment-related mortality at 100 days after transplantation. With a median follow up of 6.7 years, the 5-year progression-free survival was 48 +/- 5%, and the 5-year overall survival was 51 +/- 5%. A Cox proportional hazards model identified refractory disease at time of transplantation as the only significant factor affecting relapse and overall survival, whereas disease bulk >10 cm affected overall survival. Five patients died between 5.3 and 9.3 years of late complications, including secondary myelodysplasia or acute myeloid leukemia, secondary solid malignancies, and pulmonary toxicity. This novel Bu regimen is comparable to other radiation-free preparative regimens in its effectiveness in the control of HD and with a low-risk of early treatment-related mortality.

Salvage therapy of progressive and recurrent Hodgkin's disease: results from a multicenter study of the pediatric DAL/GPOH-HD study group

PURPOSE

To evaluate a salvage therapy (ST-HD-86) for patients with progressive and relapsed Hodgkin's disease after primary treatment in the pediatric DAL/GPOH studies. The essential chemotherapeutic regimens were ifosfamide, etoposide, and prednisone (IEP) and doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD).

METHODS

One hundred seventy-six patients with progression (n = 51) or first relapse (n = 125) were enrolled by 67 centers. The median time from initial diagnosis to progression/relapse was 1.1 year (range, 0.1 to 15.3 years), and the patients' median age was 14.7 years (range, 4.3 to 24.5 years). Salvage chemotherapy consisted of two to three cycles of IEP alternating with one to two cycles of ABVD supplemented in part by one to two cycles of cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone or lomustine (CCNU), etoposide, and prednimustine. Radiotherapy was given to involved areas using individualized doses. In the 1990s, additional high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell transplantation (SCT) was introduced for patients with unfavorable prognosis.

RESULTS

Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) after 10 years are 62% and 75%, respectively (SE, 4% each). Of 176 patients, 73 suffered second events. The risk-factor analysis revealed the time to progression/relapse as the strongest prognostic factor (P = .0001). Patients with progression have an inferior outcome (DFS, 41%; OS, 51%), whereas patients with late relapse (> 12 months after end of therapy) do well (DFS, 86%; OS, 90%), although none of them received SCT in second remission.

CONCLUSION

The result can be considered favorable. Whereas the salvage strategy for progressive disease has to be optimized further, it is possible to reduce intensity and avoid SCT in late relapses after Hodgkin's disease in childhood/adolescence.

High-dose CEB vs BEAM with autologous stem cell transplant in lymphoma

Between January 1996 and July 2002, 72 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or Hodgkin's disease underwent high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplant conditioned with either cyclophosphamide, etoposide, carmustine (CEB) or carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan (BEAM) at a single institution. In all, 52 patients received CEB and 20 patients received the BEAM regimen. Patient characteristics that were significantly different between the two groups are tumor grade and extranodal involvement (P = 0.0196, 0.0341, respectively). Regimen-related toxicities examined yielded only diarrhea occurring at a higher rate in the BEAM group (81 vs 51%, P = 0.0026), although cases were milder (92 vs 57%). Patients treated with CEB developed mucositis at a slightly higher rate (79%) than patients treated with BEAM (75%), but this difference did not reach statistical significance. However, the mucositis that occurred within the BEAM group was predominately mild (67%) in contrast to the predominance of moderate to severe cases in the CEB group (74%). In addition, patients treated with CEB required growth factor support for a longer time than patients treated with BEAM (P = 0.0399). Response rates were high in both groups, with trends favoring the BEAM group. Overall survival was higher after treatment with BEAM than with CEB (84 vs 60%).

Acute left ventricular failure following melphalan and fludarabine conditioning

Cardiotoxicity has rarely been reported as a complication of melphalan or fludarabine administration as single agents. Recently, melphalan and fludarabine have been used in combination as non-myeloablative conditioning chemotherapy prior to allogeneic stem cell transplantation. We have observed the development of severe left ventricular failure in three of 21 patients treated with this combination. Cardiotoxicity in this context has not previously been reported and has implications for the assessment, monitoring and treatment of patients undergoing pre-transplant conditioning with melphalan and fludarabine.

Aggressive radiotherapy adjuvant to peripheral blood stem cell transplant for relapsed Hodgkin's disease

The role of radiotherapy in conjunction with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow transplant for relapsed Hodgkin's disease remains to be clearly defined. Although there is substantial evidence that radiotherapy enhances local tumor control, prospective trials in the transplant setting have not been reported, and the potential toxicity of radiotherapy need to be considered. However, certain patients are at high risk of posttransplant tumor recurrence, most notably those with tumors unresponsive to pretransplant chemotherapy. We report the use of aggressive radiotherapy in three high-risk patients, including the first reported case of whole lung irradiation after a high-dose carmustine-based chemotherapy regimen. Two of these patients received repeat partial lung irradiation, including one patient with carmustine-related pulmonary toxicity. Radiotherapy (30-34.5 Gy; 1.5 Gy/fraction) was tolerated well without significant acute or late toxicity, and all patients remain disease free 40 to 62 months after irradiation without severe sequelae. We conclude that radiotherapy may be of benefit for patients at high risk of local tumor relapse, and should be considered in such cases despite potential toxicity.

Patterns of failure following high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation with involved field radiotherapy for relapsed/refractory Hodgkin's disease

PURPOSE

To evaluate the patterns of failure and outcome of patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation for relapsed/refractory Hodgkin's disease with emphasis on the impact of involved-field radiotherapy.

METHOD AND MATERIALS

Fifty-four adult patients with refractory (25) or relapsed (29) Hodgkin's disease underwent high-dose chemotherapy with either autologous bone marrow (32) or peripheral stem cell (23) transplantation. Twenty patients received involved-field radiotherapy either prior to (7) or following (13) high-dose chemotherapy. Patients treated prior to the high-dose chemotherapy received radiation to bulky or symptomatic sites, and those treated following the transplantation were treated to sites of disease persistence (10) or to consolidate a complete response (3). Twenty-six patients had purely nodal disease, 10 had lung involvement, 7 liver, 5 bone, and 3 bone marrow. A total of 147 sites were present prior to high-dose chemotherapy. Nineteen were bulky (> or = 5 cm), and 42 arose in a previous radiotherapy field.

RESULTS

Twenty-five of the 54 patients (46.3%) relapsed. Seventeen (68.0%) relapsed in sites of disease present prior to high-dose chemotherapy. Patients treated with involved-field radiotherapy had a lower rate of relapse in sites of prior disease involvement (26.3 vs. 42.8%) (p < 0.05) than those not treated with radiotherapy. Twenty-one patients had disease persistence following high-dose chemotherapy, of which 10 received involved-field radiotherapy and were converted to a complete response. Patients with disease persistence who received involved-field radiotherapy had a better progression-free survival (40.0 vs. 12.1%) (p = 0.04) than those who did not. Moreover, the patients converted to a complete response had similar progression-free and cause-specific survival as those patients achieving a complete response with high-dose chemotherapy alone. Of the initial 147 sites, 142 (97.3%) were amenable to involved-field radiation therapy. The addition of involved-field radiotherapy improved the 5-year local control of all sites (p = 0.008), nodal sites (p = 0.01), and sites of disease persistence (p = 0.0009).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin's disease undergoing high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow rescue have a high rate of relapse in sites of prior disease involvement. Involved-field radiotherapy is capable of improving the control of these sites, the majority of which are amenable to radiotherapy. In addition, the use of radiotherapy to sites of disease persistence following high-dose chemotherapy may improve the outcome of these patients.

Effective mobilisation of peripheral blood progenitor cells with 'Dexa-BEAM' and G-CSF: timing of harvesting and composition of the leukapheresis product

The mini-BEAM regimen (BCNU, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan) and its modification 'Dexa-BEAM' are effective salvage protocols for relapsed Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Since many patients with relapsed lymphoma are eligible for high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue, we were interested in the suitability of these second line regimens for mobilising peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC). The kinetics of PBPC were studied in 15 patients treated with Dexa-BEAM and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Leukocytes started to rise from < 0.5 nL-1 on day 18 (16-22) after Dexa-BEAM, and exceeded 10 nL-1 on day 20 (18-28). Peripheral blood CFU-GM peaked on day 21 (19-28) and declined slowly thereafter; the median leukocyte count was 18.7 nL-1 (12.2-60) on the day of CFU-GM-peak. The maximum number of CFU-GM circulating in peripheral blood was inversely correlated to the duration of leukopenia after Dexa-BEAM. Measurement of CD34+ cells with the monoclonal antibody 8G12-PE (HPCA-2) predicted the number of CFU-GM precisely in both peripheral blood and leukapheresis products (r = 0.90-0.95). Two to six leukapheresis procedures yielded 6.39 x 10(8) mononuclear cells kg-1 (1.82-13.49) containing 44.4 x 10(4) CFU-GM kg-1 (2.2-213.8). Immunophenotypical analysis revealed that the percentage of CD19+ B cells was very low in all collection products (less than 1%). Nine patients were autografted with PBPC (15.4-213.8 x 10(4) CFU-GM kg-1) after myeloablative chemotherapy and experienced rapid and sustained engraftment (Platelets > 50 nL-1 on day +13 [9-22]). We conclude that PBPC can be mobilised effectively by Dexa-BEAM plus G-CSF. An adequate timing of PBPC collection (when the leukocyte count has exceeded 10 nL-1) and evaluation of the progenitor content of the leukapheresis products with 8G12-PE will allow to minimise the number of leukaphereses.