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VIEW ALL NEWSSirolimus improves lymphoma survival in stem cell recipients
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Lymphoma patients receiving sirolimus for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) with reduced-intensity conditioning, appear to have a lower risk of disease progression, researchers report in an advance on-line issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Philippe Armand of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and colleagues came to this conclusion after retrospectively analyzing the outcome of 190 lymphoma patients who underwent HSCT. For GVHD prophylaxis, they received sirolimus or a combination consisting of a calcineurin inhibitor and methotrexate.
No benefit was seen in those patients who underwent sirolimus treatment along with conventional-intensity conditioning. However, the 103 patients who underwent low-intensity conditioning plus sirolimus did significantly better than the 23 patients who underwent low-intensity conditioning without sirolimus.
Three-year overall survival was 66% in the sirolimus group compared to 38% in the sirolimus-free group. Corresponding figures for progression-free 3-year survival were 44% and 17%. The hazard ratio for progression or death associated with sirolimus use was 0.5.
The researchers note that sirolimus treatment seems to be associated with improved survival and a decreased risk of progression. "We are planning to confirm this finding in a prospective trial."
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