Obinutuzumab Plus CHOP Does Not Prolong PFS in DLBCL

Obinutuzumab (G) plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) does not prolong progression-free survival (PFS) compared with rituximab plus CHOP (R-CHOP) among treatment-naive patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.¹

R-CHOP is the standard of care for patients with DLBCL and provides significant clinical benefit, but 20% to 40% of patients experience relapse/recurrence and have poor outcomes with salvage therapy.

In the phase 3 GOYA study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01287741), researchers enrolled 1418 patients with previously untreated DLBCL and randomly assigned them to receive G-CHOP or R-CHOP. The primary outcome was investigator-assessed PFS.

After a median observation period of 29 months, there was a similar number of occurrences of investigator-assessed PFS events for the G-CHOP arm (28.5%) and the R-CHOP arm (30.2%) (hazard ratio [HR], 0.92; 95% CI, 0.76-1.11; P = .3868). The estimated 3-year PFS rates were 69.6% and 66.9% for the G-CHOP and R-CHOP arms, respectively.

Patients in the G-CHOP arm reported higher frequencies of grade 3 to 5 adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs compared with the R-CHOP arm. The most frequently reported AEs were neutropenia, infusion-related reactions, nausea, and constipation.

The authors concluded that “G-CHOP did not improve PFS in a large population of patients with previously untreated DLBCL compared with R-CHOP, which remains the standard treatment in these patients.”

Reference

1. Vitolo U, Trneny M, Belada D, et al. Obinutuzumab or rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone in previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. J Clin Oncol. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2017.73.3402 [Epub ahead of print]