A phase 1 study of vorinostat maintenance after autologous transplant in high-risk lymphoma

Abstract

Only a minority of patients with high risk lymphoma will be cured with autologous transplant, so maintenance with vorinostat, an oral agent with activity in relapsed lymphoma, was studied starting day + 60 for 21 consecutive days followed by a week off for up to 11 cycles. Twenty-three patients with lymphoma were treated. Ten patients completed the full 11-cycle treatment plan per protocol, four patients were removed due to progressive disease and seven withdrew or were removed from the study due to toxicities. Despite Prevnar vaccine administration every 2 months for three injections, the mean antibody concentration never reached protective levels (> 0.35 μg/mL). Fatigue and functional well-being measured by Brief Fatigue Inventory and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General improved significantly from cycle 1 to cycle 7, but depression scores from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale did not change. Given the toxicities observed, this broad-spectrum deacetylase inhibitor at this schedule is not optimal for prolonged maintenance therapy.

Keywords::

• Chemotherapeutic approaches
• lymphoma and Hodgkin disease
• vaccines

Acknowledgements

C.C.H. was a Paul Calabresi scholar on K12CA133250 from the National Cancer Institute. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary Tables 1–2 and Figure 1 showing further data.