Dose-dense R-CHOP (administered every 2 weeks) with sargramostim in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

8554 Background: R-CHOP administered every 3 weeks is standard of care for the treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). There are conflicting reports regarding the superiority of dose dense (DD) regimen (R-CHOP administered every 2 weeks), compared to the standard R-CHOP regimen. In a Phase II study, the tolerability and efficacy of DD-RCHOP+Sargramostim was evaluated. Methods: All patients received intravenous rituximab, 375 mg/m2; cyclophosphamide, 750 mg/m2; doxorubicin, 50 mg/m2 and vincristine, 1.4 mg/m2 on day 1; prednisone 100 mg orally on days 1-5 and sargramostim 250 mg/m2subcutaneously on days 3-13. Chemotherapy cycles were repeated every 2 weeks. Results: We studied50 newly diagnosed, previously untreated DLBCL patients (median age 54.1 years, range 21.4-80.3 years). Stage III and IV disease was noted in 12 (24%) and 29 (58%) patients, respectively. Baseline characteristics included the following: high-intermediate or high-risk IPI score (n=38, 76%), extranodal involvement (n=32, 64%...