The remission status before and the PCR status after high-dose therapy with peripheral blood stem cell support are prognostic factors for relapse-free survival in patients with follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

Abstract

, 10-42). Using the Andersen-Gill proportional hazards regression model for the analysis of relapse-free survival, we found that PCR-positive findings in samples from BM and/or PB at any given time-point after transplantation were associated with an increased estimated hazard ratio of 4.5 in comparison with a PCR-negative finding (P = 0.013). On the other hand, patients included while they were in first remission had a smaller estimated hazard ratio of 0.3 when compared with patients with a history of previous treatment failure (P = 0.048). For the latter group of patients, this translates into a significantly smaller probability of relapse-free survival in comparison to patients who were in first remission at the time of PBSC-mobilization (P = 0.012). In conclusion, the remission status of the patients before autografting and the PCR status as assessed on the occasion of follow-up examinations are significant prognostic parameters for relapse-free survival in patients with follicular lymphoma undergoing high-dose therapy with PBSC autografting.

Prolonged survival and low incidence of late toxic sequelae in advanced follicular lymphoma treated with a TBI-free autografting program: updated results of the multicenter consecutive GITMO trial

“…16,17,23,[44][45][46][47][48] Our trial basically confirms this finding. However, the use of PCR as a clinical prognostic indicator in FL has some limitations.…”

Clinical relevance of minimal residual disease monitoring in non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas: a critical reappraisal of molecular strategies

“…Among these patients none have relapsed, while disease recurrences were frequently observed among patients with persistent PCR positivity. 20 Similar results in terms of correlation between PCR positivity and high incidence of relapse were also observed by Hardingham et al 41 In addition, Moos et al 42 have shown that the PCR status before autografting and the PCR status assessed at follow-up examinations are significant prognostic parameters for relapse-free survival in patients with FCL.…”

Commercial LightCycler®-based quantitative real-time PCR compared to nested PCR for monitoring of Bcl-2/IgH rearrangement in patients with follicular lymphoma

“…If it would be possible to predict disease control after first-line therapy, these therapies could be selected for patients with a high likelihood of early relapse. With qualitative PCR, several studies were able to document a relationship between molecular response and time to relapse in patients treated with standard-dose chemotherapy [4,5,26], with high-dose chemotherapy [7,[27][28][29][30] and with rituximab-containing regimen [8,31,32]. Due to the low number of patients and the limited follow-up time of 6 months, we can only speculate on the role of molecular diagnostics for the prediction of relapsed disease.…”