Rituximab administration as part of initial therapy may be associated with a poorer outcome in young patients subsequently treated with stem cell transplantation for relapsed chemosensitive large B-cell lymphoma

6665 Background: Treatment with rituximab in combination with CHOP chemotherapy (R-CHOP) has become standard as initial therapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Although concerns regarding increased resistance of DLBCL to further therapy after failing R-CHOP have been raised, recent data have suggested that the administration of rituximab prior to autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) does not affect the outcome of these patients. Methods: To corroborate these findings in a more uniformly treated patient population, we retrospectively analyzed 130 patients treated at a single institution between 1998 and 2003. Only patients with DLBCL initially treated with CHOP± R who subsequently relapsed were included. All patients received DHAP or ICE salvage chemotherapy without rituximab followed by ASCT. All patients received BEAM conditioning chemotherapy without rituximab and none received rituximab post transplantation. Results: Eighty-eight patients (67%) received CHOP as initial therapy and 42 ...