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Mini‐ BEAM is effective as a bridge to transplantation in patients with refractory or relapsed H odgkin lymphoma who have failed to respond to previous lines of salvage chemotherapy but not in patients with salvage‐refractory DLBCL
Author(s) -
Moore Sally,
Kayani Irfan,
Peggs Karl,
Qian Wendi,
Lowry Lisa,
Thomson Kirsty,
Linch David C.,
Ardeshna Kirit
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2141.2012.09096.x
Subject(s) - salvage therapy , carmustine , medicine , etoposide , melphalan , chemotherapy , transplantation , lymphoma , cytarabine , surgery , refractory (planetary science) , progressive disease , oncology , biology , astrobiology
Summary Patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma can be cured with stem cell transplantation if they are shown to have disease that is responsive to salvage chemotherapy. Patients who fail to respond to first‐line salvage chemotherapy tend to do very poorly. Here we report on 39 such patients who received mini‐ BEAM (carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan) chemotherapy as second or subsequent‐line salvage chemotherapy. Fifty‐six percent of these patients had primary refractory disease and a further 28% had responses to first‐line therapy that lasted <12 months. Seventy‐two percent had progressive disease following the salvage chemotherapy administered immediately prior to mini‐ BEAM and the remaining 28% had stable disease. Overall there was a 38% response to mini‐ BEAM (complete response = 28%, partial response = 10%). Patients with H odgkin lymphoma ( HL ) had a higher response rate compared to those with diffuse large B cell lymphoma ( DLBCL ) (63% vs. 20%). Seventy‐four percent of HL patients were able to proceed to transplantation compared with 30% of patients with DLBCL . Mini‐ BEAM is a very effective bridge to transplantation in very poor risk patients with HL who have failed to respond to first‐line salvage chemotherapy. Its efficacy in non‐ H odgkin lymphoma is more modest.