Abstract 4950

Introduction:

Despite improvements in outcome using chemoimmunotherapy, treating elderly patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remains challenging. Reliable risk stratification beyond age is lacking and consequently elderly patients are often treated with reduced-dose therapeutic regimen with palliative intent. We retrospectively analyzed outcomes of DLBCL patients aged 65 and older treated at the University of Pennsylvania.

Patients and method:

We identified 41 patients (pts) with diagnosis of DLBCL and age >65 years. Median age was 74 years (range: 65–86). Eight pts (20%) were age 80 or older. There were no differences in IPI, elevated LDH, or bcl-2 expression, whereas bcl-6 expression was more common in patients >80 years with 75% (6/8) vs. 27% (24/33) (p=0.01).

Overall, 31 pts were treated with R-CHOP, 2 pts with R-HyperCVAD and one pt with R-CVP. Seven patients with a median age of 77 years were considered too frail for standard chemotherapy and were treated with a “split R-CHOP” regimen consisting of: rituximab 375 mg/m2 day 1, cyclophosphamide 375 mg/m2 day 1 and 15, adriamycin 25 mg/m2 day 1 and 15, vincristine 1 mg day 1 and 15 and Prednisone 50 mg day 1–5 and day 15–19.

Results:

Overall, the complete remission (CR) rate was 56% with seven treatment related deaths (17%). For patients between 65 to 80 years of age and deemed fit for standard chemotherapy (n=28), CR rate was 57% with four treatment related deaths (14%). Among patients over 80 and deemed fit for standard chemotherapy (n=6), the CR rate was 50% with 2 treatment related deaths (33%). Frail patients treated with the “split R-CHOP regimen” (n=7) had a CR rate of 57% with one (14%) treatment related death.

For all patients, the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 1 year with a median overall survival (OS) of 2 years. The median PFS for pts between 65 and 80 years of age treated with standard chemotherapy was 16 months. Median PFS in pts >80 years of age treated with standard chemotherapy was 7 months, whereas median PFS in frail pts treated with “split R-CHOP regimen” was 11.7 months.

Conclusions:

Our data reveal interesting findings about elderly pts treated for DLBCL. PFS and OS in general are poor as has been reported by others. In our data set, pts>80 years considered fit for standard chemotherapy, had a shorter PFS then fit patients between 65 to 80 years.

Intriguingly, PFS among frail elderly patients treated with a “split R-CHOP” regimen appears to be superior to that of elderly deemed more robust who were treated with standard dose RCHOP-21. Though limited by small numbers, our institutional data suggest that frail patients can tolerate a modified R-CHOP regimen although survival remains short.

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Disclosures:

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Topics:
diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, older adult, brachial plexus neuritis, chemotherapy regimen, r-chop, complete remission, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, hypercvad protocol, palliative care

Author notes

*

Asterisk with author names denotes non-ASH members.

© 2011 by The American Society of Hematology
2011
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