Survival outcomes for various treatment modalities in advanced-stage grade 3 follicular lymphoma (FL3): A National Cancer Database (NCDB) study.
7554 Background: The prognosis, response to therapy and curability of FL3 is controversial. 5-year Overall Survival (OS) in the literature ranges from 35-72% (Ganti 2006). The aim of this study was to compare the OS for patients with advanced-stage FL3 managed with various treatment modalities. Methods: We identified patients (pts) diagnosed with stage III & IV FL3 between 2004 – 2012 from the NCDB and categorized them into 3 groups based on therapy – pts given single agent chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy were combined due to small sample sizes (SA±RT), multi agent chemotherapy without radiotherapy (MA-RT), and multi agent chemotherapy with radiotherapy (MA+RT). We calculated OS using Kaplan-Meier method and compared the results using Log Rank test. Cox regression model was used to identify other factors which had significant impact on OS. Results: 2,808 pts were identified – 1,508 (54%) with stage III and 1,300 (46%) with stage IV disease. Median age was 60 yrs (range 21-90yrs); 1,331 (47%) males, 1,477 (53%) females; 2,559 (91%) whites, 142 (5%) blacks. 170 cases (6%) were treated with SA±RT, 2,508 (89%) with MA-RT and 130 (5%) with MA+RT. There was no significant difference in 5-year OS between MA-RT (83%) and MA+RT (82%; HR 1.07, P=0.76). There was no difference between SA±RT (73%) and MA+RT (82%; HR 0.62, P=0.069) likely due to small sample sizes, but survival for MA-RT (83%) was significantly higher than SA±RT (73%; HR 1.78, p<0.001). Cox regression indicated that age (HR 1.04, P<0.001), sex (HR 0.77 for females, P=0.008), comorbidities (HR 1.48 for Charlson Deyo Score 1, P=0.001; HR 2.59 for Score 2, P<0.001), stage (HR 1.29, P=0.007), insurance status (HR 0.65 for insured, P=0.048) and increasing year of diagnosis (HR 0.91, P<0.001) also had significant impact on OS. Use of MA chemotherapy declined (2004 96% v 2012 91%, P=0.008) but there was no significant trend in use of radiotherapy (2004 5% v 2012 3%) during the periods studied. Conclusions: MA chemotherapy in pts with advanced-stage FL3 was associated with improved survival compared to SA therapy, and radiation does not appear to influence outcomes. Outcomes were superior to what has been previously reported.