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Bendamustine with or without rituximab for the treatment of heavily pretreated non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients

A multicenter retrospective study on behalf of the Italian Lymphoma Foundation (FIL)

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Abstract

Bendamustine is an alkylating agent with a nitrogen mustard group and a purine-like benzimidazole group. The aim of this study was to collect all the Italian experiences with this drug in order to evaluate the results in term of response to therapy and toxicities. We analyzed lymphoma patients treated in 24 Italian haematological centres with bendamustine alone or in combination with anti-CD20 antibody. One hundred seventy-five relapsed or refractory lymphoma patients were enrolled. The median age was 69 years (range 26–87). Seventy-nine patients were relapsed, 35 were refractory and 61 presented a progressive disease after partial response. The diagnoses were 60 indolent non-follicular lymphomas, 34 diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, 48 follicular lymphomas, 30 mantle cell lymphomas and three peripheral T-cell lymphomas. All patients were evaluable for response: 52 (29%) with complete remission, 72 (43%) with partial response with an overall response rate of 71%, and 51 non-responders. With a median observation period of 10 months (1–43), 70% of patients are alive. In summary, this retrospective study shows that treatment with bendamustine alone or in combination with rituximab is a safe and effective regimen in a subset of multi-resistant patients.

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Acknowledgements

The following researchers have substantially contributed to data acquisition: Maurizio Musso, UO Ematologia e Trapianto di Midollo, CDC "La Maddalena", Palermo; Pellegrino Musto, UO di Ematologia e Trapianto di Cellule Staminali, IRCCS-CROB, Rionero in Vulture; Teodoro Chisesi, UO Ematologia Mestre-Venezia; Nicola Di Renzo, UO Ematologia e Trapianto di cellule Staminali, P.O V. Fazzi, Lecce; Nicola Cascavilla, Ematologia IRCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo; Caterina Stelitano, UO Ematologia Ospedali Melacrino-Morelli, Reggio Calabria; and Mariella Sciacca, UO OncoEmatologia AO Sant’Andrea, Vercelli.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SOD Ematologia, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi, Florence, Italy

    Luigi Rigacci, Benedetta Puccini & Alberto Bosi

  2. UO Ematologia e TMO, Ospedale Regionale San Maurizio, Bolzano, Italy

    Sergio Cortelazzo & Andrea Piccin

  3. Division of Hematology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Università del Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro, Novara, Italy

    Gianluca Gaidano

  4. UO Ematologia, Nocera Inferiore, Italy

    Alfonso D’Arco

  5. SC Medicina Trasfusionale ed Ematologia ASLTO4 Ciriè, Torino, Italy

    Roberto Freilone

  6. U.O OncoEmatologia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Campobasso, Italy

    Sergio Storti

  7. UO Ematologia, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy

    Enrico Orciuolo

  8. Istituto di Ematologia “Seràgnoli”, Università e Ospedale S. Orsola, Bologna, Italy

    Pier Luigi Zinzani

  9. Clinica Ematologica, Centro Trapianti e Terapia Cellulari “Carlo Melzi”, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria S. M. Misericordia, Udine, Italy

    Francesco Zaja

  10. UO Ematologia, Azienda Ospedaliera “S. Giovanni Addolorata”, Rome, Italy

    Velia Bongarzoni

  11. Hematology Unit, Humanitas Cancer Center Rozzano, Milan, Italy

    Monica Balzarotti

  12. IRCC FPO, Candiolo, Italy

    Delia Rota-Scalabrini

  13. U.O. Ematologia, A.O. Villa Sofia-Cervello, Palermo, Italy

    Caterina Patti

  14. Clinica Ematologica, Dipartimento di Ematologia e Oncologia, Ospedale San Martino, Genoa, Italy

    Marco Gobbi

  15. U.O Ematologia, Ronciglione, VT, Italy

    Andrea Carpaneto

  16. Sezione Medicina Interna e Scienza Oncologiche, Azienda Ospedaliera S. Maria Terni, Terni, Italy

    Anna Marina Liberati

  17. UO Ematologia, AOUP Paolo Giaccone, Palermo, Italy

    Emilio Iannitto

  18. Division of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Careggi, Via delle Oblate 1, 50141, Florence, Italy

    Luigi Rigacci

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  1. Luigi Rigacci
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  2. Benedetta Puccini
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  3. Sergio Cortelazzo
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  4. Gianluca Gaidano
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  7. Roberto Freilone
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  12. Velia Bongarzoni
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  13. Monica Balzarotti
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  14. Delia Rota-Scalabrini
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  15. Caterina Patti
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  16. Marco Gobbi
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  18. Anna Marina Liberati
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  19. Alberto Bosi
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  20. Emilio Iannitto
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Correspondence to Luigi Rigacci.

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Rigacci, L., Puccini, B., Cortelazzo, S. et al. Bendamustine with or without rituximab for the treatment of heavily pretreated non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients. Ann Hematol 91, 1013–1022 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-012-1422-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-012-1422-5

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