Chemotherapy with etoposide, vincristine, doxorubicin, bolus cyclophosphamide, and oral prednisone in patients with refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.

BACKGROUND: This Phase II study was undertaken to assess the efficacy and toxicity of chemotherapy with etoposide, vincristine, doxorubicin, bolus cyclophosphamide, and oral prednisone (EPOCH regimen) in patients with advanced, refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).

METHODS: Fifteen patients were treated with a 96-hour continuous infusion of etoposide, vincristine, doxorubicin, bolus cyclophosphamide, and oral prednisone, followed by granulocyte-colony stimulating factor support and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis. The median age of the patients was 53 years (range, 17-82 years). Six patients had Sézary syndrome (SS), four patients had visceral involvement, and four patients had anaplastic large cell morphology, three with Ki-1 (CD30) positivity. All patients had disease that was refractory to prior chemotherapy or electron beam irradiation and eight of these patients had received cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone. Seven patients had received prior interferon therapy and nine patients had received fludarabine and/or 2-CDA.

RESULTS: After a median of 5 cycles (range, 1-9 cycles), 4 patients achieved a complete response (27%) and 8 patients achieved a partial response (53%) for an overall response rate of 80% (95% confidence interval, 52-96%). Three patients with visceral involvement, two of three patients with anaplastic large cell morphology, and one patient with human T-cell lymphoma virus leukemia/lymphoma did not respond. All 12 responders had improvement in skin disease; 2 of 6 patients with SS had complete disappearance of circulating Sézary cells. The median progression free survival was 8.0 months (range, 3-22 months). After a median follow-up of 11.4 months (range, 2-56+ months), the median patient survival was 13.5 months. Grade 3 or 4 hematologic toxicity occurred in 8 patients (61%); 5 of these 8 patients had febrile neutropenia. Six patients developed staphylococcal bacteremia, two patients had disseminated herpes infection, and one patient had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Grade 3 neurotoxicity occurred in one patient. Two patients had a significant decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction and one patient had supraventricular tachycardia.

CONCLUSIONS: EPOCH chemotherapy has a high response rate with acceptable toxicity in patients with advanced and refractory CTCL.