Effectiveness of intravenous high-dose methotrexate for prevention of relapse in patients with DLBCL.

Authors

null

Hind Alotaibi

KFMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Hind Alotaibi , Ibraheem Motabi , Ahmad Butt , Nawal AlShehry , Mohammed Marei , Imran Tailor , Sayed Altaf , Syed Zaidi , Mohammed Alnoamani , Abdullah Alrajhi , Bilal Albtoosh , Kamal Alzahrani , Mansour Alfayez

Organizations

KFMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Department of Hematology, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, TX, Saudi Arabia

Research Funding

No funding received
None

Background: Central nervous system (CNS) relapse develops in 2-10% of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and has an adverse prognosis. Tools like IPI and CNS-IPI scores identify patients at high risk of systemic or CNS relapse based on the presence of established risk factors (Schmitz et al. JCO 2016). International guidelines propose prophylactic intravenous high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) for patients at high risk of CNS relapse; however, limited data is backing this approach. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of newly diagnosed DLBCL patients aged 18-75 years treated with curative intent at large academic medical centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 2015-2018. Patients who were planned for CNS HD-MTX after cycles 2, 4, and 6 of R-CHOP and received at least one HD-MTX cycle were included. Results: We identified 35 DLBCL patients who received at least one R-CHOP cycle with one cycle of HD-MTX. The median IPI and CNS-IPI score were 3, (range = 0-4) and 3, (range = 0-5), respectively. The median number of R-CHOP cycles received was 6 (range 3-6) and HD-MTX 3 (range 1-6). The overall response rate was 91%, with 3 (9%) primary refractory patients per interim evaluation on cycle 3 of R-CHOP. Achieving complete remission after six cycles of RCHOP was noted in 80%, with four additional patients showed residual disease at the end of treatment evaluation. The entire cohort's overall survival was not reached, and five years estimated survival is 75%. With a median follow-up duration of 37.3 months, none of the patients relapsed after achieving CR at the end of treatment evaluation. The risk of systemic or CNS relapse in our cohort was 0%. In restricting the analysis to CNS-IPI of ≥ 4, a total of 13 patients with a median follow-up of 42 months were included; four patients did not achieve CR by the end of treatment, while nine patients continue to be in CR without any evidence of relapsed disease. Conclusions: High-dose methotrexate with high-intensity chemoimmunotherapy (R-CHOP) seems to be associated with an improvement in the expected rate of CNS relapse. Our data set is small, and a more extensive study evaluating HD-MTX's effectiveness in high-risk DLBCL is warranted.

Characteristics
N (%); Median [Range]
Age
47 [18-74]
CNS-IPI
≥3
30 (85%)
< 3
5 (14%)
Stage
IV
31 (88%)
III
1 (2.8%)
II
2 (5.7%)
B symptoms (Yes)
30 (85%)
Extranodal disease (Yes)
31 (88%)
Bulky disease
19 (54%)
Adrenal/kidney involvement
3 (8.5%)
LDH
369 [157-2404]
Subtype
GCB
18 (51%)
non-GCB
11 (31%)

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2021 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Publication Only

Session Title

Publication Only: Hematologic Malignancies—Lymphoma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Track

Hematologic Malignancies

Sub Track

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Citation

J Clin Oncol 39, 2021 (suppl 15; abstr e19562)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2021.39.15_suppl.e19562

Abstract #

e19562

Abstract Disclosures