Busulfan, Melphalan and Etoposide Followed by Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation on Patients with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Multicenter Study From Consortium for Improving Survival of Lymphoma (CISL) in Korea

High dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has become the standard approach for relapsed or high risk non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Several different high dose therapy (HDT) conditioning regimens have been used for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), such as BEAM (carmustine, etoposide, cytosine arabinoside, melphalan), BEAC (carmustine, etoposide, cytosine arabinoside, cyclophosphamide), and CBV (cyclophosphamide, carmustine, etoposide). Carmustine is an active drug in the HDT of NHL but the supply of carmustine is limited in some countries including Korea. Intravenous busulfan containing regimens as conditioining regimen have been used for both allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with hematologic and non –hematologic malignancies. The purpose of this prospective multicenter phase II study was evaluate the efficacy and safety of iv busulfan/melphalan/etoposide regimen as a conditioining regimen for high dose chemotherapy in the patients with relapsed or high risk NHL.

Patients with relapsed or primary refractory NHL or chemosensitive high risk NHL underwent high dose chemotherapy followed by ASCT at 13 centers in Korea. The conditioning regimen consisted of iv busulfan 3.2mg/kg/day i.v. on days −8, −7 and −6, etoposide 400mg/m2/day i.v. on days −5 and −4 and melphalan 50mg/m2/day i.v. on days −3 and −2.

Fifty one patients were enrolled onto the study. Main subgroups were DLBCL (n=25, 49%) and T cell lymphoma (n=19, 37%). At the time of ASCT, the disease status of patients was as follows: 13 patients were high risk in remission, 16 were primarily refractory to inducton therapy, 15 patients were in chemosensitive relapse. All patients had successful stem cell engraftment with a median time to neutrophil recovery of more than 500/mm3 of 10 days (range, 2 to 30 days). Platelet recovery of more than 20,000/mm3 was seen after a median of 10 days (range, 2 to 51 days) with delayed recovery in one patient. Treatment related toxicities included nausea/vomiting in 28 patients (55%), diarrhea in 28 patients (55%) and mucositis in 33 patients (65%), which were grade I or II in the majority of cases. Grade I/II hepatic toxicities occurred in 24% (n=12) and grade III in 6% (n=3). There were no VOD and treatment related death. The median duration of hospitalization for ASCT was 30 days (range, 12 to 80 days). Forty one patients (80%) achieved a complete response 1 month after ASCT, while three patients showed progressive disease. At a median follow up of 14.7 months, 21(41%) patients exhibited a relapse or progression, while 11 patients had died of disease and one patient had died of heart failure. The estimated 2-year overall and progression free survival for all patients was 64% and 40%, respectively.

This preliminary analysis suggests that conditioning regimen of i.v. busulfan/melphalan/etoposide would be well tolerated and effective in patients with relapsed or high risk NHL. Accordingly, this regimen may be regarded as an important treatment option to substitute for BEAM regimen.

Lee:Novartis: Research Funding.