Analysis Results of the Regional Registry of Patients with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma: Risk Factors and Chemo-Immunotherapy Issues

KD Kaplanov1,2, NP Volkov1, TYu Klitochenko1, IV Matveeva1, AL Shipaeva1, MN Shirokova1, NV Davydova3, EG Gemdzhian4, DS Abramov5, DM Konovalov5, GL Snigur2, NA Red’kina1

1 Volgograd Regional Clinical Oncology Dispensary No. 1, 78 Zemlyachki str., Volgograd, Russian Federation, 400138

2 Volgograd Medical Scientific Center, 1G Rokossovskogo str., Volgograd, Russian Federation, 400081

3 Consultation and Diagnosis Polyclinic No. 2, 114A Angarskaya str., Volgograd, Russian Federation, 400081

4 National Medical Hematology Research Center, 4а Novyi Zykovskii pr-d, Moscow, Russian Federation, 125167

5 Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, 1 Samory Mashela str., Moscow, Russian Federation, 117997

For correspondence: Kamil’ Daniyalovich Kaplanov, MD, PhD, 78 Zemlyachki str., Volgograd, Russian Federation, 400138; e-mail: kamilos@mail.ru

For citation: Kaplanov KD, Volkov NP, Klitochenko TYu, et al. Analysis Results of the Regional Registry of Patients with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma: Risk Factors and Chemo-Immunotherapy Issues. Clinical oncohematology. 2019;12(2):154–64.

DOI: 10.21320/2500-2139-2019-12-2-154-164


ABSTRACT

Background & Aims. At least one third of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) are resistant to first-line therapy. R-CHOP chemo-immunotherapy does not yield acceptable results in high-risk patients. Effectiveness of options based either on increasing the dose intensity or on including auto-HSCT into the first-line therapy was not supported by the results of controlled studies. With this background the present study focuses on options, issues and failures of first-line on the basis of long-term follow-up of DLBCL patient population in the Volgograd Region.

Materials & Methods. From 2004 to 2017 the population-based registry of the Hematology Department in the Volgograd Regional Clinical Oncology Dispensary included all 492 primary DLBCL patients: 235 (48 %) men and 257 (52 %) women aged 18 to 88 years. Mean and median age was 59 and 61 years, respectively. CHOP therapy was administered to 206 (42 %) patients, and 223 (45 %) patients received R-CHOP. Other regimens including NHL-BFM-90 and R-DA-EPOCH were used only in 63 (13 %) patients. Second- and third-line therapies were administered to 145 (30 %) and 54 (11 %) patients, respectively. Value of the International Prognostic Index (IPI) and immunomorphologic characteristics was determined by multivariate Cox regression analysis. Pharmacoeconomic aspect of first-line therapy failures was analyzed using Markov model.

Results. Improvement of DLBCL therapy effects with the use of R-CHOP chemo-immunotherapy is particularly obvious in the groups with favorable and intermediate prognosis with 5-year overall survival (OS) of 90 % and 69 %, respectively. R-CHOP results are not considered to be satisfactory in the high-risk group: 5-year OS was 38 %. Pharmacoeconomic analysis proves the advantage of chemo-immunotherapy strategy in comparison with the period before rituximab era in terms of the life years gained (LYG) and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). With respect to immunotherapy effects the most significant immunomorphologic parameter is bcl-2 tumor cell expression. In the group of patients with bcl-2 > 50 % 5-year OS was 61 % with median of 88 months, event-free survival (EFS) was 52 % with median of 62 months. In the group without bcl-2 expression above the threshold 5-year OS and EFS were 88 % and 75 %, respectively, medians were not achieved. With c-myc and bcl-2 coexpression EFS and OS appeared to be even worse: 5-year EFS was 29 % with median of 6 months, and 5-year OS was 31 % with median of 15 months.

Conclusion. The analysis of actual practice demonstrates the need for new options of first-line therapy for DLBCL high-risk patients and also for introducing new discriminating prognostic factors which include the IPI-independent ones.

Keywords: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, R-CHOP, chemoimmunotherapy, survival, pharmacoeconomics, Markov model, life years gained (LYG), incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER).

Received: July 16, 2018

Accepted: January 10, 2019

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