Patient Survival With and Without Radiation Therapy for Early-Stage Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma in the Era of PET and Rituximab

PURPOSE: The benefit of radiation therapy (RT) becomes uncertain in the treatment of early stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the era of rituximab, positron emission topography (PET), and computed tomography (CT). We sought to retrospectively review modern patients with early stage I-II DLBCL treated with rituximab and staged by PET-CT to better define which patients benefit from consolidative RT. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients with early stage I-II DLBCL from 1998 to 2017 were reviewed coinciding with our institutional utilization of rituximab with the standard regimen of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone and PET-CT. Relevant clinical information was used to calculate National Comprehensive Cancer Network international prognostic index (IPI) scores. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and a Cox proportional hazards model were used for overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients received chemoimmunotherapy alone, and 41 received chemoimmunotherapy plus RT. Median follow-up time was 9.5 years. On univariate analysis, extranodal disease (P = .04) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network IPI (P < .001) were significantly correlated with OS. Five-year OS was 87% versus 67%, and 10-year OS was 67% versus 58%, numerically higher favoring RT (P = .16). On multivariate Cox regression analysis of OS controlling for IPI and extranodal disease, the addition of RT was associated with improved OS (hazard ratio of 0.4, P = .01). CONCLUSIONS: The current analysis supports the use of consolidative RT in early stage DLBCL given an OS benefit on multivariate analysis. Further prospective randomized data are needed to confirm these findings.