Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver Clinic, 600 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5Z 4E6. lsehn@bccancer.bc.ca
In diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), prior studies suggest that concordant bone marrow involvement with DLBCL portends a poorer prognosis, whereas discordant bone marrow involvement with small B-cell lymphoma does not. We examined the significance of bone marrow involvement in patients treated in the current era of therapy including rituximab.
We performed a retrospective analysis of the prognostic impact of bone marrow involvement in an unselected population of patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL treated with rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone in British Columbia and Auckland, New Zealand, with complete clinical information and evaluable staging bone marrow biopsies.
In total, 795 patients were identified. Six hundred seventy (84.3%) of 795 had a negative bone marrow, 67 patients (8.4%) had concordant and 58 (7.3%) had discordant involvement. Median follow-up was 41 months (range, 1 to 115). Progression-free survival (PFS) was inferior in those with concordant (P