R±CEOP90 Versus R±CEOP75 in Newly Diagnosed Young Patients With Medium/High-risk DLBCL

STUDY BACKGROUND Anthracyclines are key drugs in combined chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and R±CHOP has been used as the first-line standard chemotherapy protocol of DLBCL. Epirubicin (EPI) belongs to anthracyclines and its mechanism of action includes directly embedding into DNA base pair, interfering with the transcription process, blocking the formation of mRNA, and thus inhibiting the synthesis of DNA and RNA. In addition, epirubicin also has inhibitory effect on topoisomerase II. Compared with adriamycin, the effect of epirubicin is equal or slightly higher, but with less cardiotoxicity and myelotoxicity. Although epirubicin has been widely used in chemotherapy regimen for the treatment of multiple types of solid cancer, due to lack of large-scale randomized clinical study, the use of epirubicin in the treatment of lymphoma is greatly limited and epirubicin has not been recommended in internationally recognized guidelines including NCCN, ESMO and ASH. There have been several studies using epirubicin for the treatment of lymphoma, which all indicated comparable efficacy and lower toxicity compared with adriamycin. Because CHOP regimen is often combined with targeted therapy, optimizing anthracyclines in CHOP regimen is quite important for reducing toxicity, especially replacing Adriamycin with epirubicin. Up to present, there have been studies on elderly patients and low-risk young patients with DLBCL and the results have provided evidences to support R+CHOP21 as the first-line standard therapy for DLBCL. But there still lacks clinical studies on high-risk young DLBCL patients and the treatment for these kinds of patients often follows the therapy of above mentioned studies, and these lack strong support of evidenced medicine. Before the application of Rituximab, several studies have suggested that increasing dosage strength of anthracyclines may bring benefits in overall survival to patients. After the introduction of Rituximab in the treatment of DLBCL, although Rituximab significantly promote overall survival of low-risk patients, young high-risk patients have not been studied. Based on above background and current knowledge gap, this clinical study shall focus on newly pathologically diagnosed young medium/high-risk Chinese DLBCL patients and investigate whether enhanced epirubicin dosage strength shall achieve higher complete remission rate and longer overall survival. OBJECTIVES: 1. Evaluate and compare the efficacy of high-dose epirubicin (90mg/m2) and standard-dose epirubicin (75mg/m2) in R±CEOP chemotherapy regimen. 2. Assess toxicity profile of R±CEOP chemotherapy regimen at different dosage of epirubicin, especially difference in cardiotoxicity and hematological toxicity between R±CEOP90 and R±CEOP75. 3. Assess the influence of R±CEOP90 and R±CEOP75 on long-term survival of newly diagnosed young patients with medium/high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. OUTLINE: Included patients shall be randomly divided into 2 groups: high-dose epirubicin group (90mg/m2) and standard-dose epirubicin group (75mg/m2) given intravenously on Day 1 of each cycle for totally 6 cycles. Patients with CD20 positive proven by pathological examination in both groups shall receive Rituximab. Except for the difference in epirubicin dosage, the administration of Cyclophosphamide, Vincristine and Prednisolone shall follow standard chemotherapy regimen. Screening shall be completed within 4 weeks before the administration of study drugs. For included patients, treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. During treatment of study drugs, the tests and procedures shall be performed within the first 3 days of each cycle: serum chemistry test, hematological test and body weight measurement. Physical examination, vital sign and WHO performance and ECOG score shall be performed or assess before the administration of study drugs on Day 1 of each cycle. At the end of Cycle 3, 6 and 8 (if applicable) (±14days), physical examination, CT or MRI or PET examination shall be performed. If necessary, bone marrow assessment shall also be performed. End-of-treatment visit shall be conducted within 4-5 weeks after the last administration of study drug. Patients experiencing toxicity or side effects shall be assessed within 4 weeks after withdrawal of study drugs. After completion of study treatment, patients who have not shown signs of disease progression shall be followed up for 2 year until disease progression, start treatment for another disease or death. Follow-up visit shall be conducted every 12±2 weeks and tumor assessment shall be performed (including neck, chest, abdomen, and pelvis CT or MRI). PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 408 patients will be accrued for this study.