PF316 THE CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND OUTCOMES OF PATIENTS WITH AGGRESSIVE LARGE CELL LYMPHOMA AND DIABETES MELLITUS

Background: Epidemiological studies suggest that patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are at‐risk to develop several types of cancers, including non‐Hodgkin lymphoma. Whether DM affects the clinical presentation or outcome of patients with lymphoma is unknown. Since patients with DM are prone to develop infectious complications, we hypothesize that the co‐occurrence of DM would increase the rate and/or severity of infectious complications in patients with lymphoma who receive chemotherapy. Aims: To describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with DM who received treatment for aggressive large cell lymphoma. Methods: This is a single center retrospective single center study. We included all consecutive patients who were diagnosed with aggressive large cell lymphoma and were treated at our institute between 2013 and 2017. Demographics, disease‐related and outcome data were extracted from the electronic medical records. Additional data and lab results were extracted from the hospital database. Categorical variables were compared using the χ2 or the Fischer exact test, and Mann Whitney was used to compare medians. Results: Between the years 2013 and 2017 we treated 226 patients with aggressive large cell lymphoma, most (n = 219, 96%) with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. In this cohort 49 patients (22%) had type 2 DM. None of our patients had type 1 DM. The median age of patients with DM was 70 years, and of non‐DM patients 65 years (P = 0.001). Patients with DM tended to have higher baseline BMI values (P = 0.057), but were comparable in all other demographic characteristics. Likewise, response to therapy, relapse rates and survival outcomes were similar in patients with DM compared to non‐DM patients. There were 133 hospital admissions due to febrile neutropenia (FN) in the entire cohort. Patients with DM had higher rates of admissions due to FN (P = 0.004). The admission rate in patients with DM remained higher after age‐matched subgroup analysis (P = 0.005). Yet, the duration of hospitalizations and number of admissions to the ICU were similar in patients with or without DM. In patients with DM, improved glycemic control during FN hospitalizations was associated with shorter hospital duration (P = 0.007). However, Hemoglobin A1C levels were not associated with increased risk for FN or infectious complications. Summary/Conclusion: Patients with aggressive large cell lymphoma and DM have higher rates of hospitalizations due to FN. In this high risk population, perhaps more aggressive measures should be made to avoid infectious complications. Furthermore, our data suggests that improved glycemic control during hospitalization is associated with shorter length of hospitalization due to FN in patients with DM.