Long Term Follow-up of Adults with Burkitt's Lymphoma Receiving Dose-Dense Chemotherapy with or without Rituximab: A Single Center Retrospective 20 Years Study of 51 Patients

Most of adult Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) regimens have been adapted from intensive chemotherapy pediatric protocols, and addition of rituximab seems to improve prognosis and survival. Because of its low incidence in adults, most of the studies concerning BL are multicentric. Therefore, we conducted a single center analysis to evaluate efficacy and long-term outcome of adult patients with BL who received intensive chemotherapy with rituximab compared to those who received chemotherapy alone.

We reviewed the clinical records of adult patients with BL at Paoli Calmettes Institute between 1995 and 2015. According to the 2016 WHO classification, we could identify 51 patients diagnosed with BL, with no history of immunodeficiency. The median age was 44 years (range, 17-84). With a median follow-up of 58 months (range, 49-76), the complete response rate was 73% [59%-83%] for the whole population. There was a trend for improvement in outcome favoring rituximab-containing therapy, with 5-year PFS at 75% (versus 62%), EFS at 75% (versus 51%) and OS at 80% (versus 65%), although these did not reach statistical significance. Age > 44 years was associated with a poorer survival. No relapse was notified 4 years after completion of treatment.

With a long follow-up, our data are in accordance with those recently reported in the literature, and showed that intensive chemotherapy plus rituximab improve survival of adult patients with BL.