Key clinical point: Age and time to progression (TTP) on frontline immunochemotherapy are strongly associated with survival in relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (R/R DLBCL). The researchers used their findings to develop and validate a simple to apply clinical model to allow better understanding of expected outcomes in R/R DLBCL.

Major finding: A total of 1,125 patients had disease progression after immunochemotherapy. Median time to progression (TTP) was 11.8 months, and median age at progression was 68 years. The 24-month overall survival after disease progression (OS24) was 35%. TTP was strongly associated with post-disease progression OS. OS24 ranged from 18% in patients with TTP less than 6 months to 69% in patients with TTP greater than 36 months.

Study details: A total of 5,112 patients with DLBCL enrolled in 13 frontline multi-center randomized trials. All patients received rituximab and an anthracycline-based combination immunochemotherapy.

Disclosures: Dr. Maurer has received research funding from Celgene/BMS and Nanostring and has done consulting/advisory board work for Morphosys and Kite Pharma.