Rituximab and Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia

OBJECTIVES: * Determine the response rate of patients with newly diagnosed Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia treated with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone. * Determine the associated toxic effects of this regimen, specifically the frequency of febrile neutropenia, in these patients. * Determine the progression-free survival of patients treated with this regimen. * Correlate baseline cytogenetic features and gene expression profiles with response in patients treated with this regimen. OUTLINE: This is a pilot, multicenter study. Patients receive rituximab intravenously (IV) over approximately 4 hours, cyclophosphamide IV over 5-30 minutes, doxorubicin IV over 5-15 minutes, and vincristine IV over 1 minute on day 1. Patients also receive oral prednisone on days 1-5. Treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually for 5 years. ACTUAL ACCRUAL: A total of 16 patients were accrued for this study.