Gemcitabine, cisplatin, prednisone, and thalidomide for relapse and refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma: a...

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is often prone to relapse and progression even after formal first-line treatment, and there is no standard regimen for second-line treatment. What is more, the activity of thalidomide against this type of lymphoma is unknown.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of GDPT regimen in the treatment of relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

In this retrospective study, gemcitabine, cisplatin, prednisone, and thalidomide (GDPT) combination regimen was used as salvage protocol for PTCL that failed in first-line treatment for 29 patients and it was scheduled to give 6 cycles of GDPT therapy in order to better evaluate the efficacy unless there was evidence of disease progression, unacceptable toxicities, or refusal by the patient.

After a total of 106 cycles of GDPT regimen were administered, the result showed that the disease control rate (DCR) achieved 82.8% and overall response rate (ORR) reached 69.0% with 34.5% complete remission (CR) and 34.5% partial remission (PR). The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 10.0 months (95% CI 6.6-13.4) and median OS was 28.0 months (95% CI 19.2-36.8). And the 1-year PFS rate and 1-year OS rate were 43.6% and 64.6%, respectively. Both hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities were moderate and well tolerated. There was no treatment-related death.

Thalidomide in combination with gemcitabine, cisplatin, prednisone regimen is a new promising approach to treating patients with relapse and refractory PTCL.