Is There a Benefit of Adding Rituximab to CHOP in the Overall Survival of Patients with B-Cell Non-Hodgkin′s Lymphoma in a Developing Country ?

Abstract 4892

Rituximab ( R ) has changed the prognosis of patients with non-Hodgkin′s lymphoma (NHL) in developed countries, but its role has not been analyzed in underprivileged circumstances. One hundred and two patients with NHL treated in a developing country were analyzed: 28 patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) and 74 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLCL). Patients were treated upfront with either CHOP or R-CHOP; the decision to employ R depending solely on the ability of patients to defray it. In DLCL, 42 were given CHOP and 32 R-CHOP, whereas in FL 19 were given CHOP and 9 R-CHOP. The impact of the addition of R was found to be more clear in FL than in DLCL. In patients with DLCL, the overall survival (OS) was 87% at 80 months for those treated with R-CHOP and 84% at 145 months for those treated with CHOP (p NS). In patients with FL, the OS was 89% at 88 months for those treated with R-CHOP and 71% at 92 months for those treated with CHOP (p =.05). In a multivariate analysis, other variables were identified to be associated with the OS were IPI and number of cycles in DLCL. It is concluded that rituximab produced a mild positive impact in the OS of patients with FL, but not in those with DLCL. Since the addition of rituximab results in a 36 fold increase in treatment costs, these observations may be important to decide therapeutic approaches in NHL patients living in underprivileged circumstances.