Chemotherapy Treatments for Burkitt Lymphoma: Systematic Review of Interventional Studies

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is an aggressive hematologic cancer. This study synthetized the evidence about the efficacy and safety of chemotherapy treatments used in patients with BL using the World Health Organization classification.

A systematic review of interventional studies was performed. A search was carried out in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, with additional manual and gray literature searches. The methodological quality of articles was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.

We identified 1358 studies; 9 nonrandomized studies satisfied the eligibility criteria (n = 544 patients). The BL epidemiologic variants were sporadic BL (44.5%), endemic BL (47.2%), and immunodeficiency-associated BL (8.3%). Regarding chemotherapy protocols, 4 groups were identified: based on CODOX-M/IVAC (n = 4), EPOCH (n = 1), BFM (n = 1), and simplified treatment schemes used in African countries (n = 3). Most studies had moderate quality. Empirically and qualitatively, the best options for adults with sporadic BL were 'DA-EPOCH-R' (7-year overall survival [OS], 100%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 82-100), 'HDR + LD into CODOX-M/IVAC' (2-year OS, 84%), and 'RD-CODOX-M/IVAC' (4-year progression-free survival, 92%; 95% CI, 77-100); in pediatric patients, the 'BFM-NHL-90-like' showed promising results (3-year OS, 90%). For immunodeficiency-associated BL, the 'SC-EPOCH-RR' demonstrated a good therapeutic profile (6-year OS, 90%; 95% CI, 60-98). The 'Malawi 2012-2014' (1-year OS, 73%; 95% CI, 61-85) could be the treatment choice in endemic BL (African countries). The main adverse events were hematologic.

Selecting chemotherapy protocols for BL should be grounded in its epidemiologic variants. Further studies with greater methodological quality are needed to strengthen the evidence.