Phase 1/2 study of alemtuzumab with dose-adjusted EPOCH in untreated aggressive T and NK cell lymphomas

Abstract

To evaluate the feasibility and clinical efficacy of the combination of alemtuzumab with dose-adjusted etoposide/cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine/prednisone (DA-EPOCH) as upfront therapy for untreated aggressive T and NK cell lymphomas, a phase 1/2 trial was conducted. Thirty patients were treated with the study regimen, consisting of alemtuzumab on day 1 of a 21 day cycle with standard dosing of DA-EPOCH for 6–8 cycles. Alemtuzumab 30 mg IV was used for the phase 2 component. Of 30 treated patients, 17 had a complete response (CR) and eight had a partial response (83.3% overall response rate). The median overall survival and progression-free survival were 20.2 and 6.6 months, respectively. There were five treatment-related deaths on study mainly due to infectious complications, including one case each of disseminated toxoplasmosis and pneumonia and two cases of sepsis. Alemtuzumab with DA-EPOCH is of limited clinical utility due to unacceptable toxicity, despite the high rate of CR.

Keywords:

• EPOCH
• alemtuzumab
• lymphoma
• PTCL

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/10.1080/10428194.2018.1562184