Rituximab-EPOCH, an Efective Front-Line Therapy for Mantle Cell Lymphoma.

Introduction: Mantle-cell lymphoma accounts for 3–10% of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, with a median survival not exceeding of 3–4 years and its remains incurable with conventional therapy. CHOP plus Rituximab can induce a molecular complete response in 36% of patients. More aggressive combinations, as Hyper CVAD achieved an overall response rate of 97% with 87 of complete response, data no further confirmed in other studies in which Hyper-CVAD together with Rituximab achieve an overall response rate of 62.5%, with 33% of complete responses (CR). Being toxicity high mainly in elderly patients. Infusional chemotherapy combinations have shown efficacy in mantle-cell lymphoma (as VAD). Based this premise and in the efficacy of infusional R-EPOCH in aggressive lymphomas (DLBCL and PMBCL) we have conducted a compassionate prospective study of non-adjusted infusional EPOCH-R in patients with mantle -cell lymphoma as first-line therapy.

Aim: To evaluate the clinical activity and toxicity of non-escalated infusional EPOCH-R as upfront therapy in patients newly diagnosed of mantle-cell lymphoma.

Patients and methods: Herein, 12 patients of an ongoing compassionate prospective study in newly diagnosed patients with mantle-cell lymphoma are reported. EPOCH-R consisted on Rituximab 375 mg/m² day 1, vincristine 0.4 mg plus doxorubicine 40 mg/m² plus etoposide 50 mg/m² days 1 to 4 in four day continuous infusion, cyclophsphamide 750 mg/m² day 5, and prednisone 60 mg/m² for 5 days, repeated every 21 days if feasible for 6 cycles. The median age of 65 yrs (range, 49–76). 50% of patients were males. 91% of patients presented with an Ann Arbor stage III–IV, high LDH in 50% of cases, leukemic status in 66.6%, Bone Marrow involvement in 66.6% and ECOG <2 was present in 91% of the cases.

Results: The response rate to EPOCH-R was 100% with 91% complete response (11 out of 12 patients). Neutropenia grade III–IV was observed in 16% of cases and anemia grade III–IV in 16% of cases. One case of neutropenic fever and two cases of grade III diarrhoea.

Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest that EPOCH-R is an effective as other more aggressive combinations and probably with less toxicity profile. More experience and longer follow-up is warranted to confirm this initial appealing experience.