TY - JOUR
T1 - Rituximab is associated with improved survival in Burkitt lymphoma
T2 - A retrospective analysis from two US academic medical centers
AU - Wildes, Tanya M.
AU - Farrington, Laura
AU - Yeung, Cecilia
AU - Harrington, Alexandra M.
AU - Foyil, Kelley V.
AU - Liu, Jingxia
AU - Bartlett, Nancy L.
AU - Kreisel, Friederike
AU - Fenske, Timothy S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grant numbers K12CA167540 and KM1CA156708) and The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program of the National Center for Research Resources (grant numbers UL1 RR024992, KL2 RR024994, and TL1 RR024995) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCRR, NCATS or NIH. This work was also supported in part by the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital and its generous donors (to NLB and KVF).
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - Background: Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a rare, highly aggressive B-cell malignancy treated most successfully with brief-duration, high-intensity chemotherapeutic regimens. The benefit of the addition of rituximab to these regimens remains uncertain. We sought to examine the effectiveness of chemotherapy with and without rituximab in patients with BL. Methods: This study is a retrospective cohort study of all adult patients with BL diagnosed and treated with modern, dose-intense chemotherapeutic regimens from 1998–2008 at two tertiary care institutions. All cases were confirmed by application of WHO 2008 criteria by hematopathologists. Medical records were reviewed for patient-, disease-, and treatment- related factors as well as treatment response and survival. Factors associated with survival were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards modeling. Results: A total of 35 patients were analyzed: 18 patients received rituximab with chemotherapy (R-chemo) and 17 received chemotherapy (chemo) alone. The median age was 42 (range 20–74 years); 57% were male; 71% had Ann Arbor Stage IV disease; 33% had central nervous system involvement; 78% had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0–1. R-chemo was associated with significantly longer overall survival (OS) than chemo alone (5-year OS 70% and 29%, respectively, p = 0.040). On multivariate regression analysis, poor performance status and central nervous system involvement were associated with poorer survival. The addition of rituximab to chemotherapy was associated with improved OS in patients with Burkitt lymphoma. Poor performance status and central nervous system involvement were prognostically significant on multivariate analysis.
AB - Background: Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a rare, highly aggressive B-cell malignancy treated most successfully with brief-duration, high-intensity chemotherapeutic regimens. The benefit of the addition of rituximab to these regimens remains uncertain. We sought to examine the effectiveness of chemotherapy with and without rituximab in patients with BL. Methods: This study is a retrospective cohort study of all adult patients with BL diagnosed and treated with modern, dose-intense chemotherapeutic regimens from 1998–2008 at two tertiary care institutions. All cases were confirmed by application of WHO 2008 criteria by hematopathologists. Medical records were reviewed for patient-, disease-, and treatment- related factors as well as treatment response and survival. Factors associated with survival were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards modeling. Results: A total of 35 patients were analyzed: 18 patients received rituximab with chemotherapy (R-chemo) and 17 received chemotherapy (chemo) alone. The median age was 42 (range 20–74 years); 57% were male; 71% had Ann Arbor Stage IV disease; 33% had central nervous system involvement; 78% had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0–1. R-chemo was associated with significantly longer overall survival (OS) than chemo alone (5-year OS 70% and 29%, respectively, p = 0.040). On multivariate regression analysis, poor performance status and central nervous system involvement were associated with poorer survival. The addition of rituximab to chemotherapy was associated with improved OS in patients with Burkitt lymphoma. Poor performance status and central nervous system involvement were prognostically significant on multivariate analysis.
KW - Burkitt lymphoma
KW - chemotherapy
KW - rituximab
KW - survival
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84993683928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/2040620713514682
DO - 10.1177/2040620713514682
M3 - Review article
C2 - 24490019
AN - SCOPUS:84993683928
SN - 2040-6207
VL - 5
SP - 3
EP - 12
JO - Therapeutic Advances in Hematology
JF - Therapeutic Advances in Hematology
IS - 1
ER -