Frontline treatment with chemoimmunotherapy for limited-stage ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma with adverse factors: a phase II study

Abstract

Background: Radiotherapy is a commonly used treatment for limited-stage ocular adnexal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (OAML) but showed a substantial relapse risk if the disease involves beyond-conjunctiva or bilateral conjunctivae. Systemic chemoimmunotherapy may be an alternative frontline therapy for the limited disease with those adverse prognostic factors. Patients and methods: We designed a multicenter, phase II study of the chemoimmunotherapy, rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisolone (R-CVP) for the treatment of patients with limited-stage OAML with bilateral or beyond-conjunctival involvement. Thirty-three patients with Ann Arbor stage I OAML with the adverse factors were enrolled. Patients received six cycles of R-CVP followed by two cycles of rituximab therapy. Results: At the end of treatment, all the enrolled patients had responded. The cumulative complete response achievement was 93.9% at 2 years. At a median follow-up of 50.6 months, three patients had progressed. Progression-free survival and overall survival at 4 years was 90.3 +/- 5.3% and 100%, respectively. Conclusions: This phase II study demonstrated durable efficacy of R-CVP chemoimmunotherapy, which has promise as an alternative frontline therapy for the limited-stage OAML patients with adverse prognostic factors.