Impact of age on outcomes after initial therapy with chemotherapy and different chemoimmunotherapy regimens in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: results of sequential cancer and leukemia group B studies.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a disease of the elderly, yet few clinical trials include a significant number of older patients, and outcomes after specific therapies can be different depending on age.

Patients and methods

We examined patients enrolled onto successive first-line CALGB CLL trials to determine whether efficacy of regimens varied by age, focusing on ideal chemotherapy choice and benefit of immunotherapy addition to chemotherapy in older patients. Regimens included chlorambucil, fludarabine, fludarabine plus rituximab (FR), fludarabine with consolidation alemtuzumab, and FR with consolidation alemtuzumab.

Results

A total of 663 patients were evaluated for response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) by age group. Int

SUBMITTER: Woyach JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3731920 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature