Salvage chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for peripheral T-cell lymphoma: a subset analysis of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group LY.12 randomized phase 3 study^*

Abstract

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a rare, heterogeneous malignancy. Of the 619 patients with relapsed and refractory (R/R) aggressive lymphoma enrolled in the Canadian Cancer Trials Group LY.12 phase 3 trial, 59 (9.5%) had PTCL. Among these, 81% had advanced stage disease, 41% had an International Prognostic Score ≥3, and 41% were refractory to primary therapy. Within the PTCL cohort, the overall response rate after two cycles of salvage chemotherapy was 36%; no difference was observed between dexamethasone, cytarabine, cisplatin (10/30, 33%), and gemcitabine, cisplatin, dexamethasone (11/29, 38%) therapy. At one year, event-free survival (EFS) was 16% and overall survival (OS) was 28%. For PTCL patients, who received autologous stem cell transplant, two-year EFS and OS were 21% and 42%, respectively. Patients with PTCL had inferior OS (HR 0.49, p < .0001) and EFS (HR 0.53, p < .0001) compared to B-cell lymphoma. Outcomes for patients with R/R PTCL are poor with currently available therapies.

Keywords:

• T-cell lymphoma
• salvage
• randomized phase 3 clinical trial
• autologous stem cell transplantation
• relapse

Acknowledgements

The LY.12 trial was supported by grants No. 015469 and 021039 from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute and by Roche, Canada and Eli Lilly and Company, Canada. Author A.R. is the Canadian Cancer Society Research Chair at the University of New Brunswick.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1312379.

Additional information

Funding

No additional funding was obtained for this secondary analysis.