Weight change trends and overall survival in United States veterans with follicular lymphoma treated with chemotherapy

Abstract

Understanding weight change patterns in follicular lymphoma (FL) may be important for the assessment of prognosis as well as the long-term care of survivors. A retrospective cohort of United States veterans with a new diagnosis of FL between October 1, 1998 and September 30, 2010 was assembled. Weight changes were evaluated before, during, and after treatment in 896 FL patients who received cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone, with or without rituximab (CHOP ± R); cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone, with or without rituximab (CVP ± R); or rituximab monotherapy. Weight decreased an average of 1.4 kg during therapy, and >5% weight loss during this time period was associated with worse overall survival. Weight increased to an average of 1.4 kg above baseline by 24 months after treatment initiation, with 15% gaining greater than 10% of their baseline weight. Weight management strategies may be an important part of long-term survivorship planning.

Keywords:

• Body weight changes
• lymphoma
• veterans

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by: The NCCN Young Investigator Awards (YIA), The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation, The American Cancer Society [MSRG-13-077-01-CPHPS], the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health [U54CA155496 and 5K12HL087107], and the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences grant [UL1TR000448, sub-award TL1TR000449], from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of: The United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 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 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2016.1217526.