Reduced-dose EPOCH-R chemotherapy for elderly patients with advanced stage diffuse large B cell lymphoma

The standard treatment in elderly patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has not yet been finely established. We investigated the efficacy and safety of rituximab with a reduced-dose of EPOCH chemotherapy in elderly patients who had advanced DLBCL with high IPI scores. The dose of 70% EPOCH was given to patients aged 75 to 79 years, and dose of 50% to patients aged over 80 years. Thirty-one patients with a median age of 79 years (range 75–86 years) were enrolled. Patients received a median of 6 cycle’s chemotherapy. The complete response rate was 71.0%. The 3-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival rates were 62.8 and 60.3%, respectively. The most frequent grade 3/4 adverse effects were neutropenia (3 patients, 7 events), febrile neutropenia (3 patients, 5 events), and pulmonary infection (3 patients, 3 events). Our study showed that ECOG score 3–4, bulky disease, β2-MG > 5.0 mg/L, and loss of any IADL are prognostic factors for OS in univariate analysis. In summary, reduced-dose EPOCH-R chemotherapy for very elderly patients is very effective with acceptable toxicities. Our preliminary study may provide an alternative approach to manage very elderly fit patients with advanced and poor risk DLBCL by first-line treatment with reduced-dose EPOCH-R.