Impact of Rituximab and Radiotherapy on Outcome of Patients With Aggressive B-Cell Lymphoma and Skeletal Involvement

Purpose To study clinical presentation, outcome, and the role of radiotherapy in patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma and skeletal involvement treated with and without rituximab. Patients and Methods Outcome of patients with skeletal involvement was analyzed in a retrospective study of nine consecutive prospective trials of the German High-Grade Non-Hodgkin lymphoma Study Group. Results Of 3,840 patients, 292 (7.6%) had skeletal involvement. In the MabThera International Trial (MInT) for young good-prognosis patients and the Rituximab With CHOP Over 60 Years (RICOVER-60) study for elderly patients, the randomized addition of rituximab improved event-free survival (EFS; hazard ratio for MInT [HRMInT] = 0.4, P > 001; hazard ratio for RICOVER-60 [HRRICOVER-60] = 0.6, P > .001) and overall survival (OS; HRMInT = 0.4, P < .001; HRRICOVER-60 = 0.7, P = .002) in patients without skeletal involvement, but failed to improve the outcome of patients with skeletal involvement (EFS: HRMInT = 1.4, P = .444; HRRICOV...