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©ASCO/Phil McCarten
CHICAGO—Elderly males with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) may require one-third higher doses of rituximab than the current standard to attain optimal responses to rituximab-containing chemotherapy, a new study suggests.
Increasing the rituximab dose eliminated any gender-related differences in survival among elderly patients with aggressive, CD20+, B-cell lymphomas, said investigator Michael Pfreundschuh, MD, of Saarland University Medical Center in Germany.
He presented this finding at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting (abstract 8501).
Although rituximab has been used in NHL for nearly 2 decades, standard dosing of the drug is still largely empiric. Only recently have researchers examined whether responses to the drug may vary by gender and age.
New data show that rituximab clears the body more rapidly in elderly males than elderly females, suggesting that rituximab dosing may need to be increased in older men to maintain adequate drug exposure.
Dr Pfreundschuh noted that the RICOVER-60 trial established 6 cycles of rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone every 14 days (R-CHOP-14), followed by 2 additional cycles of rituximab, as the new standard of care for elderly patients with NHL in Germany.
Further analysis of the trial’s results indicates that rituximab dosing may be inadequate in males older than 60, since they fare much worse than elderly females in terms of progression-free survival (PFS).
To test this gender difference, the German High-grade Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group designed the SEXIE-R-CHOP-14 trial.
The group tested 2 different rituximab doses in patients aged 61 to 80 with stage I to IV, CD20+, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). A group of 120 females received rituximab at 375 mg/m2 per treatment cycle, and a group of 148 males received 500 mg/m2 per treatment cycle.
The increased rituximab dose in males resulted in slightly higher trough serum levels than in females. However, rituximab levels dropped faster in males, resulting in nearly identical serum levels thereafter and a very similar overall rituximab exposure time, Dr Pfreundschuh said.
The higher dose of rituximab given to elderly males did not result in increased toxicity.
Survival rates were similar between the male and female groups. The 3-year PFS was 74% in males and 68% in females, and 3-year overall survival was 82% in males and 72% in females.
A multivariate analysis that evaluated gender as a risk factor revealed that the male-vs-female hazard ratio for PFS was 0.8 in SEXIE-R-CHOP-14, compared to 1.6 in RICOVER-60. Similarly, the male-vs-female hazard ratio for overall survival was 0.7 in SEXIE-R-CHOP-14 and 1.4 in RICOVER-60.
“Increasing the rituximab dose by one-third eliminated the increased risk [of death and progression in] elderly males,” Dr Pfreundschuh concluded.
He also noted that younger males and females have faster rituximab clearance than elderly females. So increasing the dose in these populations should also result in a better outcome. 
©ASCO/Phil McCarten
CHICAGO—Elderly males with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) may require one-third higher doses of rituximab than the current standard to attain optimal responses to rituximab-containing chemotherapy, a new study suggests.
Increasing the rituximab dose eliminated any gender-related differences in survival among elderly patients with aggressive, CD20+, B-cell lymphomas, said investigator Michael Pfreundschuh, MD, of Saarland University Medical Center in Germany.
He presented this finding at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting (abstract 8501).
Although rituximab has been used in NHL for nearly 2 decades, standard dosing of the drug is still largely empiric. Only recently have researchers examined whether responses to the drug may vary by gender and age.
New data show that rituximab clears the body more rapidly in elderly males than elderly females, suggesting that rituximab dosing may need to be increased in older men to maintain adequate drug exposure.
Dr Pfreundschuh noted that the RICOVER-60 trial established 6 cycles of rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone every 14 days (R-CHOP-14), followed by 2 additional cycles of rituximab, as the new standard of care for elderly patients with NHL in Germany.
Further analysis of the trial’s results indicates that rituximab dosing may be inadequate in males older than 60, since they fare much worse than elderly females in terms of progression-free survival (PFS).
To test this gender difference, the German High-grade Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group designed the SEXIE-R-CHOP-14 trial.
The group tested 2 different rituximab doses in patients aged 61 to 80 with stage I to IV, CD20+, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). A group of 120 females received rituximab at 375 mg/m2 per treatment cycle, and a group of 148 males received 500 mg/m2 per treatment cycle.
The increased rituximab dose in males resulted in slightly higher trough serum levels than in females. However, rituximab levels dropped faster in males, resulting in nearly identical serum levels thereafter and a very similar overall rituximab exposure time, Dr Pfreundschuh said.
The higher dose of rituximab given to elderly males did not result in increased toxicity.
Survival rates were similar between the male and female groups. The 3-year PFS was 74% in males and 68% in females, and 3-year overall survival was 82% in males and 72% in females.
A multivariate analysis that evaluated gender as a risk factor revealed that the male-vs-female hazard ratio for PFS was 0.8 in SEXIE-R-CHOP-14, compared to 1.6 in RICOVER-60. Similarly, the male-vs-female hazard ratio for overall survival was 0.7 in SEXIE-R-CHOP-14 and 1.4 in RICOVER-60.
“Increasing the rituximab dose by one-third eliminated the increased risk [of death and progression in] elderly males,” Dr Pfreundschuh concluded.
He also noted that younger males and females have faster rituximab clearance than elderly females. So increasing the dose in these populations should also result in a better outcome.
©ASCO/Phil McCarten
CHICAGO—Elderly males with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) may require one-third higher doses of rituximab than the current standard to attain optimal responses to rituximab-containing chemotherapy, a new study suggests.
Increasing the rituximab dose eliminated any gender-related differences in survival among elderly patients with aggressive, CD20+, B-cell lymphomas, said investigator Michael Pfreundschuh, MD, of Saarland University Medical Center in Germany.
He presented this finding at the 2014 ASCO Annual Meeting (abstract 8501).
Although rituximab has been used in NHL for nearly 2 decades, standard dosing of the drug is still largely empiric. Only recently have researchers examined whether responses to the drug may vary by gender and age.
New data show that rituximab clears the body more rapidly in elderly males than elderly females, suggesting that rituximab dosing may need to be increased in older men to maintain adequate drug exposure.
Dr Pfreundschuh noted that the RICOVER-60 trial established 6 cycles of rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone every 14 days (R-CHOP-14), followed by 2 additional cycles of rituximab, as the new standard of care for elderly patients with NHL in Germany.
Further analysis of the trial’s results indicates that rituximab dosing may be inadequate in males older than 60, since they fare much worse than elderly females in terms of progression-free survival (PFS).
To test this gender difference, the German High-grade Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group designed the SEXIE-R-CHOP-14 trial.
The group tested 2 different rituximab doses in patients aged 61 to 80 with stage I to IV, CD20+, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). A group of 120 females received rituximab at 375 mg/m2 per treatment cycle, and a group of 148 males received 500 mg/m2 per treatment cycle.
The increased rituximab dose in males resulted in slightly higher trough serum levels than in females. However, rituximab levels dropped faster in males, resulting in nearly identical serum levels thereafter and a very similar overall rituximab exposure time, Dr Pfreundschuh said.
The higher dose of rituximab given to elderly males did not result in increased toxicity.
Survival rates were similar between the male and female groups. The 3-year PFS was 74% in males and 68% in females, and 3-year overall survival was 82% in males and 72% in females.
A multivariate analysis that evaluated gender as a risk factor revealed that the male-vs-female hazard ratio for PFS was 0.8 in SEXIE-R-CHOP-14, compared to 1.6 in RICOVER-60. Similarly, the male-vs-female hazard ratio for overall survival was 0.7 in SEXIE-R-CHOP-14 and 1.4 in RICOVER-60.
“Increasing the rituximab dose by one-third eliminated the increased risk [of death and progression in] elderly males,” Dr Pfreundschuh concluded.
He also noted that younger males and females have faster rituximab clearance than elderly females. So increasing the dose in these populations should also result in a better outcome.