Frontline therapy with bendamustine rituximab (BR) and rituximab cyclophosphamide vincristine prednisone (RCVP) confers similar long-term outcomes in patients with treatment naïve Waldenström macroglobulinemia in a real-world setting: a population-based analysis

• Published in: Leukemia & lymphoma 2024-02, Vol.65 (3), p.1-352
• Main Authors: Kim, Jowon Laura, Gerrie, Alina S, Savage, Kerry Joane, Villa, Diego, Scott, David, Craig, Jeffrey W, Farinha, Pedro, Skinnider, Brian, Slack, Graham, Connors, Joseph M, Sehn, Laurie H, Venner, Christopher, Freeman, Ciara L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1042-8194; 1029-2403
• DOI: 10.1080/10428194.2023.2290466

We report on outcomes of 111 patients with treatment naïve Waldenström macroglobulinemia (TN WM) treated with frontline bendamustine-rituximab (BR) (  = 57) or rituximab-cyclophosphamide-vincristine-prednisone (RCVP) (  = 54). Median follow-up was 60.7 months (range 1.9-231.6). Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 60.5 months (95% CI 47.6-73.4) for BR and 79.0 months (95% CI 31.3-126.8) for RCVP (  = .96). Median overall survival (OS) was not reached for BR and 153.4 months (95% CI 114.5-192.4) for RCVP (  = .37). While overall and major response rates did not differ between treatment groups, BR had numerically higher rate of very good partial response or better response (51% vs. 37%,  = .30) and complete response (26% vs. 13%,  = .13). RCVP confers comparable outcomes to BR in a real-world population of TN WM patients and remains an effective regimen, particularly when tolerance or frailty is an issue, or in resource-limited settings.