Bendamustine In Combination With Rituximab As First-Line Treatment For Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: Retrospective Analysis Of An Spanish Registry

Indolent lymphomas represent 40% of all subtypes of non-Hodking's lymphoma, of which follicular lymphoma (FL) is the most frequent. Bendamustine is a dual alkylating agent with demonstrated high efficacy and low toxicity profile in reported clinical trials. We present the preliminary results from the experience of Spanish compassionate use registry of this agent as first-line treatment for indolent lymphoma.

Retrospective multicenter analysis of patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas (iNHL) treated as frontline with Bendamustine plus Rituximab (BR) in compassionate use. Clinical efficacy was evaluated according to Cheson criteria (2007) and toxicity according to CTCAE v3.0 scale. This study has been approved by local ethical committees.

Patients’ characteristics: There are 96 patients registered (9 centers), with the following diagnoses: FL: 62 (64.5%), marginal zone 24 (25%), Waldenström macroglobulinemia 7 (7.3%) and mantle NHL 3 (3.1%). The main clinical features of the series are: 45% males, median age 64 years (range 36-84), 87.1% ECOG≤ 1, 63% Ann Arbor stage IV, 50.5% high risk FLIPI and 43.7% CIRS ≥ 4. Extranodal involvement was present in 79.1% of the patients, bone marrow  involvement in 52% and 11 patients (11.9%) had bulky disease. Treatment consisted in 6 cycles of BR (B-90 mg/m2 D1-2, R-375mg/m2 D1) in 95% patients. Median number of cycles administrated was 6 (range 1-8). G-CSF support was administered in 16.1% of cycles. Response and Safety: Overall response rate was 95%, with 65.5 % CR, 13.1% uCR and 16.4% PR in the 61 evaluable patients. Progression was documented in 4.9% of patients. Three exitus ocurred due to aspergillosis, progression and other not related with LNH. Median follow-up period was 14 months (3-47). In general, treatment was well tolerated; over 461 cycles registered, the most common adverse event was hematological toxicity with grade 3-4 neutropenia in 10.4%, grade 3-4 leucocitopenia in 6.9% and grade 3-4 anemia in 1.9% of the cycles. Other toxicities included all grades infections in 3.2% of patients, gastrointestinal in 3.4%, asthenia in 3.2%, chills in 1.1%, and mucositis 0.4%. Only 9 hospitalizations due to febrile neutropenia were reported.

Bendamustine plus rituximab was an effective and well tolerated regimen for newly diagnosed patients with indolent NHL.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.