The Effectiveness of Alemtuzumab Given in Combination With CHOP and ESHAP in Patients Newly Diagnosed With Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma (PTCL)

Alemtuzumab (Campath-1H) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets CD52, a cell surface protein present at high density on most normal and malignant B and T lymphocytes. CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone) is currently regarded as a standard chemotherapy regimen for patients with newly diagnosed NHL. ESHAP (etoposide, methylprednisolone, cisplatin, cytosine arabinoside) chemotherapy was invented in 1994. The regimen was aimed to salvage NHL patients who were relapsing or refractory to front-line, mostly doxorubicin-based, chemotherapy.Major toxicities were myelosuppression; 30% of the patients developed febrile neutropenia and was admitted for parenteral antibiotics. Treatment-related deaths, mostly from uncontrolled sepsis, occurred in 4% of the patients. Because of its efficacy and tolerable toxicities, at present, ESHAP is one of the salvage chemotherapy regimens most frequently administered to patients especially prior to autologous stem cell transplantation. Recently, our unit had reported the efficacy of the combination of standard CHOP chemotherapy and ESHAP and high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation or rituximab given as upfront therapy in patients newly diagnosed as poor prognosis aggressive NHL (high- and high-intermediate risk groups according to the international index).15,16 According to the previous institutional experience as well as the efficacy of the combination of CHOP and ESHAP in patients with high-risk aggressive lymphoma, we would like therefore to determine the outcome of alemtuzumab given in combination with CHOP and ESHAP in patients newly diagnosed with PTCL, the effectiveness of which has not been known.