A New Salvage Regimen for Aggressive Lymphomas Based on Gemcitabine, Rituximab, and Oxaliplatin Followed by...

To evaluate the impact of lenalidomide in patients with aggressive lymphoma who experienced less than complete response (CR) or as maintenance therapy after CR after gemcitabine, rituximab, and oxaliplatin salvage chemotherapy (GROC-Rev regimen).

Patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma received up to 6 GROC-Rev courses: rituximab (375 mg/m² provided intravenously) on day 1, oxaliplatin (100 mg/m² provided intravenously; 2 hours), gemcitabine (provided 1250 mg/m² intravenously; 30 minutes) on day 2, and pegfilgrastim (6 mg provided subcutaneously) on day 3. Patients switched to lenalidomide if they did not experience at least partial response (PR) after their second GROC-Rev course, or if they experienced less than a CR after 6 courses.

In 33 patients, overall response was 61% (CR = 39%). Of 17 patients with PR who continued to 6 courses, 10 (59%) experienced CR and 7 PR as maximum response; of these 7, 1 died before receiving lenalidomide, 1 experienced CR while receiving lenalidomide (17%), and 2 experienced a further PR (33%). Of 16 with disease that failed to respond to GROC-Rev after their second course, 2 died before lenalidomide could be administered, and 2 experienced CR (14%) and 1 PR (7%) after lenalidomide. Overall survival and progression-free survival were 47% and 33% at 2 years. Grade 3/4 adverse events included neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, and/or anemia (n = 5), neutropenic infection (n = 3), urinary tract infection (n = 3), pneumonia (n = 2), cellulitis (n = 2), and seizure (n = 1). Eight went on to receive transplants.

GROC-Rev is an effective and well-tolerated salvage regimen consisting of chemotherapy followed by lenalidomide maintenance in patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Simultaneous administration of these agents is worth exploring in future studies.