Impact of rituximab and half-dose CHOP as primary therapy for untreated symptomatic Waldenström Macroglobulinemia: review of a combined regimen of rituximab with an alkylating agent

BACKGROUND: Waldenström Macroglobulinemia (WM) is a rare subtype of indolent B-cell lymphoma, and prospective randomized studies on WM are scarce. The R-CHOP therapy [rituximab (R), cyclophosphamide, hydroxy-doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone] is a popular and recommended regimen for primary therapy, prescribed by several treatment guidelines for WM. However, treatment with R-CHOP is accompanied by severe myelosuppression and high rates of peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, we retrospectively evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of half-dose CHOP combined with R as a primary therapy for WM. METHODS: Patients with untreated symptomatic WM, treated at the Disaster Medical Center between April 2011 and September 2016, were retrospectively analyzed after administration of 6 cycles of half-dose R-CHOP for every 3 weeks. The response, median time to response, best response, progression-free survival, overall survival, and toxicities were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 20 WM patients analyzed, 16 (80%) received half-dose R-CHOP without vincristine, and 13 (65%) responded to the treatment. With a median follow-up duration of 26.3 months, the 2-year progression-free survival and 2-year overall survival rates were 70 and 93.3%, respectively. The median time to response and best response were 6 and 9.9 weeks, respectively. Grade 3/4 leukocytopenia, neutropenia, febrile neutropenia, and Grade 1 peripheral neuropathy developed in 32, 37, 0, and 21% of patients, respectively. CONCLUSION: The half-dose R-CHOP is an effective and well-tolerated primary therapy for WM. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the use of a reduced-dose R-CHOP regimen for the primary treatment of WM.

Clinical study on sequential platinum regimen as primary therapy for young patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma / 中国肿瘤临床

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy and safety of sequential platinum regimen in young patients with diffuse large B-cell lym-phoma (DLBCL). Methods:Newly diagnosed young patients with DLBCL, who were hospitalized from January 2005 to June 2012 in the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, were selected according to the requirements. The patients were divided into stan-dard and sequential platinum regimen groups. The remission rates were compared usingχ2 test, whereas the five-year survival rates between the two groups were compared using the Kaplan–Meier method. Multivariate survival analysis was performed using the Cox proportional regression. Subgroup analysis was conducted to select candidate patients for the sequential platinum regimen. Results:A total of 331 patients were enrolled in the study, in which 129 were provided with sequential platinum regimen and 202 were provided with the standard regimen. Sequential regimen yielded higher rates of complete remission (80%vs. 63%, P=0.001), five-year progres-sion-free survival (PFS;60%vs. 50%, P=0.014), and overall survival (OS;70%vs. 58%, P=0.016) than the standard regimen. Multivariate analysis revealed that sequential regimen was an independent prognostic factor for PFS (hazard ratio HR=0.635, P=0.012) and OS (HR=0.625, P=0.021). Subgroup analysis showed that patients with good prognosis and patients who did not receive rituximab benefited more from the sequential platinum regimen. Sequential platinum regimen did not increase the occurrence of adverse effects com-pared with the standard regimen. Conclusion:Sequential platinum regimen is a safe treatment that can improve the survival of young patients with DLBCL. Patients with good prognosis and patients who did not receive rituximab can benefit more from the treatment with sequential platinum regimen.

Clinical Efficacy of Thalidomide Containing Regimens as a Primary Therapy in Patients with Multiple Myeloma / 대한혈액학회지

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and toxicity of thalidomide-containing regimens as the first-line therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. METHODS: A total of 60 patients were initially treated with thalidomide-containing regimens at three institutions. Thalidomide was given with two different regimens: the TD regimen (thalidomide and dexamethasone) and the TCD regimen (thalidomide, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone). Autologous peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) were collected after mobilizing with G-CSF with or without cyclophosphamide. RESULTS: Of all the patients, 56 patients (TD regimen: 12 patients, TCD regimen: 44 patients) who received at least 4 cycles or more were evaluated for response and toxicity. The median age of the patients was 65.5 years (age range: 39~80 years). The overall response rate for the thalidomide-containing regimens was 85.5%. There were 3 (25%) complete responses and 6 (50%) partial responses for the TD regimen and there were 17 (38.6%) complete responses and 21 (47.7%) partial responses for the TCD regimen, respectively. The toxicity, according to the NCI-CTC (grade 3/4) included neutropenia in 7 patients (12.5%), thrombocytopenia in 4 patients (7.1%), infection in 6 patients (10.7%) and neuropathy in 10 patients (17.8%). In addition, there were 2 patients (3.6%) with thrombosis. Thirteen patients, who achieved more than a partial response to the thalidomide-containing regimen, proceeded to PBSC collection and the median number of CD34+ cells collected was 3.8 x 106/kg. CONCLUSION: Thalidomide-based combination chemotherapy is a safe, well tolerated and effective regimen for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, and it showed a high response rates, relatively low toxicity and sufficient collection of PBSCs.