Prevention of Anthracycline-Induced Cardiac Dysfunction With Dexrazoxane in Patients With Diffuse Large-B Cell Lymphoma

HO170 DLBCL-ANTICIPATE: "Prevention of ANThracycline-Induced Cardiac dysfunction by dexrazoxane In PATients with diffusE large B-cell lymphoma" is a national randomized controlled trial that will be conducted across 25 Dutch hospitals. This study will include adult patients with DLBCL in which first-line treatment with 6 cycles of R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) is planned (cumulative doxorubicin dose 300 mg/m2). In this trial, we have chosen to include patients with a normal cardiac function before chemotherapy because cardiac dysfunction is a contra-indication for administration of anthracyclines. A total of 324 DLBCL patients will prior to treatment be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either (1) intravenous dexrazoxane administration in a 10:1 dexrazoxane:doxorubicin ratio prior to each doxorubicin infusion or (2) no cardioprotective treatment (current standard of care). Due to the low pH of the dexrazoxane solution that would jeopardize the blinding no placebo is used. Cardiac function will be screened with echocardiography prior to the initiation of chemotherapy and followed-up at 4- and 12-months post randomization. The primary end point of the study will be the incidence of AICD, defined as a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decline of ≥10 percentage points from baseline and below 50% (normal reference value for two-dimensional (2D) echocardiography). The secondary endpoint will be the percentage of patients with complete metabolic remission (CMR) after R-CHOP chemotherapy, to reassure that dexrazoxane does not influence the antineoplastic efficacy of doxorubicin. To declare ANTICIPATE successful, the trial must show both the superiority of addition of dexrazoxane on the primary endpoint and non-inferiority on the secondary endpoint. Deep-phenotyping of patient- and treatment-related factors will be performed to evaluate their prognostic value.