Dose-Adjusted R-EPOCH Provides Long-Term Benefit for High-Risk Large B-Cell Lymphoma

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to new results published in the British Journal of Haematology, researchers have found that dose-adjusted EPOCH (etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin) plus rituximab (DA-EPOCH-R) showed good long-term benefit and was well tolerated in patients with high-risk large B cell lymphoma.

For the prospective, multicenter, phase 2 study conducted by the Spanish PETHEMA Group, researchers sought to assess the safety and efficacy of DA-EPOCH-R in treatment-naive patients with poor prognosis large B-cell lymphomas.

Researchers enrolled 68 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 6 with primary mediastinal DLBCL, and 7 with follicular lymphoma Grade 3b. Patients had a median age of 60 years and all patients had an age-adjusted International Prognostic Index >1.

Results showed that 80.2% of the 81 patients enrolled achieved a complete response. The 10-year event-free survival was 47.8% and the 10-year overall survival was 63.6% following a median follow-up duration of 64 months. No clinical and biological characteristics were not found to be associated with poorer outcomes. Of note, patients with the BCL6 gene rearrangement had a 10-year overall survival rate of 100%.