Therapeutic approach to patients with early stage diffuse large B cell lymphoma: retrospective, multicenter, real-life study of the ‘RTL’ (regional Tuscan lymphoma network)

Treatment strategies for early stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ES-DLBCL) include R-CHOP, with a similar schedule to that used in advanced stage, or a reduced number of cycles followed by radiation therapy (RT). We retrospectively analyzed 179 ES-DLBCL patients, managed according to the clinical practice. Treatment regimens include chemoimmunotherapy 4–6 cycles +/- RT as consolidation. First-line therapy was R-CHOP/CHOP-like in 88.8% of cases. RT as consolidation was administered to 29.9% of cases. Complete response rate was 87.2%, median PFS and OS were not reached. IPI 2–3 and first-line regimen with 3–4 cycles of R-CHOP without RT were the 2 prognostic variables for OS in multivariate analysis. After a median follow-up of 48 months, 31 patients died (17.3%). We suggest that both R-CHOP 6 cycles and 3–4 cycles followed by RT as consolidation seem to be valid first-line regimens, while an abbreviated strategy without RT could be associated to inferior outcome.