Upfront autologous stem cell transplantation for untreated high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in patients up to 60 years of age

Beta2-microglobulin is a valuable marker and identifies a poor-prognosis subgroup among intermediate-risk patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma

Prognosis of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can be predicted by various factors. The most widely used tool for prediction is the international prognostic index (IPI). β2-microglobulin is a tumor marker commonly used in hematological malignancies. β2-microglobulin is well correlated with outcome of DLBCL. It has been used as an adjunctive tool in some scoring systems for prognostication of DLBCL. In this study, we collected data of patients with diagnosis of DLBCL between 2015 and 2019 in our institute. For each patient, IPI was calculated according to published literature. At diagnosis, serum levels of β2-microglobulin were measured in the clinical laboratory and the results were retrieved from medical records. A total of 516 patients (269 male and 247 female) were enrolled for retrospective analysis. The median age was 64 (range 22-96). The median follow-up period was 32.2 months. The median level of β2-microglobulin was 2319 μg/L (normal range < 2366 μg/L in the clinical laboratory). Level of β2-microglobulin was significantly different between survivors and patients who succumbed to the disease. β2-microglobulin level was correlated with tumor stage, extranodal involvement, B symptoms and IPI, suggesting that it may be a good surrogate marker for disease severity and outcome prediction. We selected the intermediate-risk patients for further analysis. Patients with intermediate-risk IPI and high β2-microglobulin levels have overall survival comparable to patients with high-risk IPI, suggesting an important role of β2-microglobulin in subdivision of DLBCL patients. In conclusion, β2-microglobulin levels correlated with outcome of DLBCL. It may be used independently as a prognostic factor. Subdivision of patients with intermediate-risk IPI may identify a group of high-risk patients, which can be helpful in refining plans of treatment and follow-up.

Safety and efficacy of high-dose cytarabine MEAM therapy and other treatments for auto-peripheral blood stem cell transplantation: A retrospective comparative study

AIM

The MEAM regimen consisting of ranimustine (MCNU), etoposide (ETP), cytarabine (Ara-C), and melphalan (MEL) is widely used before auto-peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (auto-PBSCT) for malignant lymphoma in Japan. The MEAM regimen generally consists of 200-400 mg/m² for 4 days, but we decided to increase the dosage of Ara-C from the standard to 2 g/m² for 2 days with the aim of increasing drug transferability to the central nervous system. We evaluate the safety and therapeutic efficacy of high-dose Ara-C MEAM therapy.

METHODS

The high-dose Ara-C MEAM protocol consisted of MCNU 300 mg/m² on day -7, ETP 200 mg/m² on days -6, -5, -4, -3 and Ara-C 2 g/m² on day -4 -3, and MEL 140 mg/m² on day -2. We retrospectively analyzed 37 cases of malignant lymphoma at our institution between May 2014 and July 2020.

RESULTS

All patients got engraftment and there were no cases of treatment-related mortality. In all cases, the 3-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) after transplantation were 80.6% and 65.7%, respectively. Twenty-one cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma recurrence, for which there is proven usefulness of auto-PBSCT, showed good results after transplantation, with the 3-year OS and PFS after transplantation being 100% and 74.3%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The safety and efficacy of high-dose Ara-C MEAM therapy were demonstrated, but the expected therapeutic effect on central nervous system lesions could not be fully evaluated owing to the small number of cases.

Orbital MALT Lymphoma after Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation for Follicular Lymphoma as Relapse of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

We report a patient who developed orbital MALT lymphoma after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for follicular lymphoma as relapse of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. A 54-year-old woman with systemic lymphadenopathy was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma by left supraclavicular lymph node biopsy, and underwent 6 courses of R-CHOP chemotherapy with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone, leading to complete response. Five years later in the follow-up, an abdominal mass with abnormal uptake was found by whole-body 2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography, and computed tomography-guided biopsy demonstrated follicular lymphoma. She underwent 4 courses of R-IDEA chemotherapy with rituximab, ifosfamide, dexamethasone, etoposide, and cytarabine, resulting in partial response, and then, underwent autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation with myeloablative conditioning with R-MCEC chemotherapy (rituximab, ranimustine, cyclophosphamide, etoposide, and carboplatin). She was well for the following 3 years with no treatment until the development of a right orbital mass. The excisional biopsy this time revealed MALT lymphoma. She underwent 3 courses with rituximab monotherapy and local orbital radiation at the total dose of 30 Gy. She had no relapse for the following three years. Relapse as MALT lymphoma after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for relapsed and refractory lymphoma may not be a poor prognostic sign.

Response-adapted treatment with upfront high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem-cell transplantation rescue or consolidation phase high-dose methotrexate for primary central nervous system lymphoma: a long-term mono-center study

Treatment regimens for primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) include high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX)-based chemotherapy, with or without radiotherapy and are based on studies of selected patient groups. This retrospective study assessed a consistent strategy of response-adapted protocol applied for patients including age >65 years in a cancer center for 10 years longitudinally. Case notes were studied of 61 consecutively treated patients with PCNSL histologically diagnosed between 2003 and 2013. Clinical follow-up during and after treatment included neurologic examination and magnetic resonance imaging. Of the patients studied, 14.8 % (9/61) were clinically unfit for chemotherapy; the remaining 85.2 % (52/61) of patients were treated with HD-MTX. Of these patients, 58 % (30/52) achieved an initial complete response, with a median survival of 100.1 months. Of these response-adapted patients, 33 % (10/30) were <65 years and were treated with upfront high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem-cell transplantation (HDC-ASCT). The remaining response-adapted patients included 53 % (16/30) who were ≥65 years underwent consolidation with HD-MTX, and 14 % (4/30) who chose radiotherapy. The median survival of patients with HDC-ASCT had not yet been reached compared with 67.6 months for patients with HD-MTX consolidation treatment (p = 0.26). At the end of the study, 75 % (39/52) of patients had died mainly owing to progression or relapse of PCNSL. Multivariate analysis showed that age younger than 65 years (p = 0.02) and complete response for up-front HD-MTX (p = 0.001) were independent prognostic indicators of overall survival. In conclusion, this single-center retrospective clinical study has shown that treatment of PCNSL with upfront HDC-ASCT and consolidation phase HD-MTX monotherapy may be feasible, even for elderly patients in a routine clinical setting, using the three-step selection by eligibility and response to initial HD-MTX, and age threshold of 65 years for ASCT.

Prediction of survival by applying current prognostic models in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with R-CHOP followed by autologous transplantation

Background

Among the currently available prognostic models for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), we investigated to determine which is most adoptable for DLBCL patients treated with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) followed by upfront autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT).

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated survival differences among risk groups based on the International Prognostic Index (IPI), the age-adjusted IPI (aaIPI), the revised IPI (R-IPI), and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network IPI (NCCN-IPI) at diagnosis in 63 CD20-positive DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP followed by upfront auto-SCT.

Results

At the time of auto-SCT, 74.6% and 25.4% of patients had achieved complete remission and partial remission after R-CHOP, respectively. As a whole, the 5-year overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 78.8% and 74.2%, respectively. The 5-year OS and PFS rates according to the IPI, aaIPI, R-IPI, and NCCN-IPI did not significantly differ among the risk groups for each prognostic model (P-values for OS: 0.255, 0.337, 0.881, and 0.803, respectively; P-values for PFS: 0.177, 0.904, 0.295, and 0.609, respectively).

Conclusion

There was no ideal prognostic model among those currently available for CD20-positive DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP followed by upfront auto-SCT.

Favorable Event Free-Survival of High-Dose Chemotherapy Followed by Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Higher Risk Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in First Complete Remission

High-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has been applied to patients with diffuse large Bcell lymphoma (DLBCL); it is well established that ASCT shows significant survival benefits for chemosensitive relapse. However, half of relapsed patients are resistant to salvage chemotherapy, indicating that they are not suitable for ASCT. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical records of 47 patients with DLBCL classified as high or high-intermediate (higher) risk, according to the International Prognostic Index, who underwent upfront ASCT in first complete remission (CR1). Compared with 10 patients with similar characteristics who did not receive ASCT, event free survival at 5-year was significantly superior in ASCT group. Toxicity of ASCT was acceptable and therapy-related death was not observed. We therefore propose that upfront ASCT for higher risk DLBCL in CR1 might provide survival benefit, probably because the high-dose therapy removes minimally resided tumor.