Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication use in older patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) leads to inferior survival and increased treatment-related toxicities.

Authors

Richard Lin

Richard Jirui Lin

NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY

Richard Jirui Lin , Helen Ma , Robin Guo , Michael L. Grossbard , Andrea B. Troxel , Catherine S. Magid Diefenbach

Organizations

NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, New York University School of Medicine and Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY, Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, New York University Perlmutter Cancer Center/New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY

Research Funding

Other

Background: Survival outcomes for older patients with aggressive NHL are disproportionally inferior to those of younger patients. While differences in tumor biology may play a role, older patients are often frail with comorbidities, polypharmacy, and use potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) such as anticholinergics and benzodiazepines. Methods: Using Cox proportional hazard and logistic regression models, we analyzed all aggressive NHL patients age 60 treated at our two affiliated hospitals from 2009-2014 to examine the association of polypharmacy and PIM use with progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and treatment-related toxicities. Results: In this updated and final analysis, we included 171 patients with complete records from these two hospitals. They share similar demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics except for higher International Prognostic Index (IPI) in patients from one hospital. The median age was 70 years (range 65-77). At the time of diagnosis, 46% of patients used more than 4 medications (polypharmacy) and 47% used at least one PIM. Only 43% of patients received first-line chemotherapy of adequate relative dose intensity (>85% dosage), and 65% experienced grade 3 toxicities. Polypharmacy and PIM use were associated with shortened PFS and OS by log-rank test. Most importantly, PIM use remained an independent predictor of PFS, OS, and grade 3 toxicities in multivariable analyses (Table). Conclusions: This is the first report of significantly adverse survival impacts of polypharmacy and PIM use in older patients with aggressive NHL, presumably from drug-drug interactions that increase toxicities and impair the delivery of adequate chemotherapy dosage. Our findings support the use of evidence-based geriatric principles to guide meticulous medication management to improve outcome disparity for these patients.

Multivariable analyses estimating the association between PIM and clinical outcomes.

Clinical outcomesHR/OR95% CIP
    PFS2.81 (HR)1.36 to 5.810.005
    OS3.12 (HR)1.49 to 6.520.003
Toxicities2.91 (OR)1.42 to 5.970.004
    ≥Grade 3

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2017 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Patient and Survivor Care

Track

Patient and Survivor Care

Sub Track

Geriatric Oncology

Citation

J Clin Oncol 35, 2017 (suppl; abstr 10039)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2017.35.15_suppl.10039

Abstract #

10039

Poster Bd #

28

Abstract Disclosures