Standard chemotherapy with interferon compared with CHOP followed by high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation in untreated patients with advanced follicular lymphoma: the GELF-94 randomized study from the Groupe d'Etude des Lymphomes de l'Adulte (GELA). Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The purpose of this study is to compare our standard chemotherapy regimen (CHVP [cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, teniposide, and prednisone]) plus interferon with 4 courses of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) followed by high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in treatment-naive patients with advanced follicular lymphoma. Four hundred one patients were included from July 1994 to March 2001: 209 received 12 cycles of CHVP plus interferon alpha for 18 months (CHVP-I arm) and 192 received 4 cycles of CHOP followed by high-dose therapy (HDT) with total body irradiation and ASCT (CHOP-HDT arm). Overall response rates were similar in both groups (79% and 78% after induction chemotherapy, respectively). One hundred thirty-one of the 150 patients eligible for HDT underwent transplantation (87%). Intent-to-treat analysis after a median follow-up of 7.5 years showed that there was no difference between the 2 arms for overall survival (P = .53) or event-free survival (P = .11). Patients with a complete response at the end of the induction therapy had a statistically longer event-free survival and overall survival (P = .02 and < .001, respectively). After long-term follow-up, our study showed that there was no statistically significant benefit in favor of first-line high-dose therapy in patients with follicular lymphoma. High-dose therapy should be reserved for relapsing patients.

authors

  • Van Besien, Koen
  • Sebban, Catherine
  • Mounier, Nicolas
  • Brousse, Nicole
  • Belanger, Coralie
  • Brice, Pauline
  • Haioun, Corinne
  • Tilly, Herve
  • Feugier, Pierre
  • Bouabdallah, Redah
  • Doyen, Chantal
  • Salles, Gilles
  • Coiffier, Bertrand

publication date

  • July 11, 2006

Research

keywords

  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols
  • Interferon Type I
  • Lymphoma, Follicular
  • Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 33750618068

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1182/blood-2006-03-013193

PubMed ID

  • 16835383

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 108

issue

  • 8