Long-term results of the GELA study comparing R-CHOP and CHOP chemotherapy in older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma show good survival in poor-risk patients

8009 Background: The prospective randomized study LNH-98.5 was first reported in the N Engl J Med and J Clin Oncol with a median follow-up of 2 and 5 years. Here, we present the 7-year follow-up of the 399 patients included in the study. Methods: Patients had untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and were 60 to 80 years old with a median age at diagnosis of 69 years. 60% had a poor risk lymphoma as defined by the aaIPI risk score of 2 or 3. 197 patients were randomized in CHOP arm and 202 in R-CHOP arm. Treatment consisted of 8 cycles of CHOP every 3 weeks with rituximab the same day in R-CHOP. Results: With a median follow-up of 7.1 years, 76% of the patients had an event in CHOP compared to 58% in R-CHOP, p=0.0002 (Table). 65% of patients died in CHOP arm compared to 47% in R-CHOP arm: 80% and 71% of them from lymphoma or treatment toxicity, 5% and 5% from another cancer, and 15% and 22% in CR from other causes, respectively. Survival curves show the same difference as reported before with a large dif...