Outcome of Patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Relapsing after Autologous Transplant before Availability of CAR-T Cell Treatment

INTRODUCTION: Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) following high-dose chemotherapy is applied as salvage therapy in patients with relapsed disease or as first-line consolidation in high-risk DLBCL with chemo-sensitive disease. However, the prognosis of relapsing DLBCL post-ASCT remained poor until the availability of CAR-T cell treatment. To appreciate this development, understanding the outcome of these patients in the pre-CAR-T era is essential. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 125 consecutive DLBCL patients who underwent HDCT/ASCT. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 26 months, OS and PFS were 65% and 55%. Fifty-three patients (42%) had a relapse (32 patients, 60%) or refractory disease (21 patients, 40%) after a median of 3 months post-ASCT. 81% of relapses occurred within the first year post-ASCT with an OS of 19% versus 40% at the last follow-up in patients with later relapses (p=0.0022). Patients with r/r disease after ASCT had inferior OS compared to patients in ongoing remission (23% versus 96%; p<0.0001). Patients relapsing post-ASCT without salvage therapy (n=22) had worse OS than patients with 1–4 subsequent treatment lines (n=31) (OS 0% versus 39%; median OS 3 versus 25 months; p<0.0001). Forty-one (77%) of patients relapsing after ASCT died, 35 of which due to progression. CONCLUSIONS: Additional therapies can extend OS but mostly cannot prevent death in DLBCL relapsing/refractory post-ASCT. This study may serve as a reference to emerging results after CAR-T treatment in this population.