Abstract
Purpose
There is an urgent need for a better strategy in the management of relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the regimen using metronomic prednisone, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory NHL, in comparison with conventional salvage chemotherapy.
Methods
Eligible patients were randomized to the test group (n = 23) receiving metronomic prednisone, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide or the control group (n = 21) receiving conventional salvage chemotherapy. The serum levels of circulating endothelial cells (CECs) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were measured before and after two cycles of treatment; overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were evaluated at cycles 2, 4, 6, and 12 months after treatment.
Results
After two cycles of treatment, the ORRs of the test and control groups were statistically similar, while the DCR of the test group (87.0 %) was significantly higher than that of the control group (57.1 %). At 12 months after treatment, the ORR and DCR of the test group (47.8 and 69.6 %, respectively) were significantly higher than that of the control group (19.0 and 33.3 %, respectively). The serum CECs and VEGF levels in the test group after treatment were significantly lower than that before treatment or that of the control group. In the patients with ORR and DCR in the test group, the serum CECs and VEGF levels remained relatively low at cycles 2, 4, and 6 and at 12 months after treatment. There was a progression-free survival (PFS) benefit of 6.5 months in the test group, compared with the control group.
Conclusion
Metronomic chemotherapy with prednisone, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide resulted in higher ORR and DCR, fewer adverse effects, and longer PFS in patients with relapsed or refractory NHL, with significant reduction in serum CECs and VEGF levels.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fisher RI, Gaynor ER, Dahlberg S et al (1993) Comparison of a standard regimen (CHOP) with three intensive chemotherapy regimens for advanced non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. N Engl J Med 328(14):1002–1006
Abali H, Urun Y, Oksuzoglu B et al (2008) Comparison of ICE (ifosfamide-carboplatin-etoposide) versus DHAP (cytosine arabinoside-cisplatin-dexamethasone) as salvage chemotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma. Cancer Invest 26(4):401–406
Park SH, Kim S, Ko OB et al (2006) ESHAP salvage therapy for refractory and relapsed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma: a single center experience. Korean J Intern Med 21(3):159–164
Huang HQ, Jiang WQ, Wang W et al (2003) Preliminary outcome for patients with relapsed or resistant advanced non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treated by EPOCH regimen. Ai Zheng 22(4):389–392
Schutt P, Passon J, Ebeling P et al (2007) Ifosfamide, etoposide, cytarabine, and dexamethasone as salvage treatment followed by high-dose cyclophosphamide, melphalan, and etoposide with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for relapsed or refractory lymphomas. Eur J Haematol 78(2):93–101
Visani G, Malerba L, Stefani PM et al (2011) BeEAM (bendamustine, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan) before autologous stem cell transplantation is safe and effective for resistant/relapsed lymphoma patients. Blood 118(12):3419–3425
Andre N, Carre M, Pasquier E (2014) Metronomics: towards personalized chemotherapy? Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11(7):413–431
El Bary NA, Hashem T, Metwally H et al (2010) A phase II study of high-dose celecoxib and metronomic ‘low-dose’ cyclophosphamide and methotrexate in patients with relapsed and refractory lymphoma. Hematol Oncol Stem Cell Ther 3(1):13–18
Coleman M, Martin P, Ruan J et al (2008) Prednisone, etoposide, procarbazine, and cyclophosphamide (PEP-C) oral combination chemotherapy regimen for recurring/refractory lymphoma: low-dose metronomic, multidrug therapy. Cancer 112(10):2228–2232
Ruan J, Martin P, Coleman M et al (2010) Durable responses with the metronomic rituximab and thalidomide plus prednisone, etoposide, procarbazine, and cyclophosphamide regimen in elderly patients with recurrent mantle cell lymphoma. Cancer 116(11):2655–2664
Buckstein R, Kerbel R, Cheung M et al (2014) Lenalidomide and metronomic melphalan for CMML and higher risk MDS: a phase 2 clinical study with biomarkers of angiogenesis. Leuk Res 38(7):756–763
Mehran R, Nilsson M, Khajavi M et al (2014) Tumor endothelial markers define novel subsets of cancer-specific circulating endothelial cells associated with antitumor efficacy. Cancer Res 74(10):2731–2741
WangYuan Z, JiangZheng Z, Lu YD et al (2016) Clinical efficacy of metronomic chemotherapy after cool-tip radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. Int J Hyperth 32(2):193–198
Mancuso P, Colleoni M, Calleri A et al (2006) Circulating endothelial-cell kinetics and viability predict survival in breast cancer patients receiving metronomic chemotherapy. Blood 108(2):452–459
Elsamany S, Farooq MU, Elsirafy M et al (2014) Phase II study of low-dose fixed-rate infusion of gemcitabine combined with cisplatin and dexamethasone in resistant non-Hodgkin lymphoma and correlation with Bcl-2 and MDR expression. Med Oncol 31(3):872
Masuda N, Higaki K, Takano T et al (2014) A phase II study of metronomic paclitaxel/cyclophosphamide/capecitabine followed by 5-fluorouracil/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide as preoperative chemotherapy for triple-negative or low hormone receptor expressing/HER2-negative primary breast cancer. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 74(2):229–238
Gisselbrecht C, Glass B, Mounier N et al (2010) Salvage regimens with autologous transplantation for relapsed large B-cell lymphoma in the rituximab era. J Clin Oncol 28(27):4184–4190
Ruan J, Hajjar K, Rafii S et al (2009) Angiogenesis and antiangiogenic therapy in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Ann Oncol 20(3):413–424
Ribatti D, Nico B, Ranieri G et al (2013) The role of angiogenesis in human non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Neoplasia 15(3):231–238
Salven P, Orpana A, Teerenhovi L et al (2000) Simultaneous elevation in the serum concentrations of the angiogenic growth factors VEGF and bFGF is an independent predictor of poor prognosis in non-Hodgkin lymphoma: a single-institution study of 200 patients. Blood 96(12):3712–3718
Niitsu N, Okamato M, Nakamine H et al (2002) Simultaneous elevation of the serum concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor and interleukin-6 as independent predictors of prognosis in aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Eur J Haematol 68(2):91–100
UskudarTeke H, Gunduz E, Akay OM et al (2015) Are the high serum interleukin-6 and vascular endothelial growth factor levels useful prognostic markers in aggressive non-hodgkin lymphoma patients? Turk J Haematol 32(1):21–28
Pedersen LM, Klausen TW, Davidsen UH et al (2005) Early changes in serum IL-6 and VEGF levels predict clinical outcome following first-line therapy in aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Ann Hematol 84(8):510–516
Lyden D, Hattori K, Dias S et al (2001) Impaired recruitment of bone-marrow-derived endothelial and hematopoietic precursor cells blocks tumor angiogenesis and growth. Nat Med 7(11):1194–1201
Igreja C, Courinha M, Cachaco AS et al (2007) Characterization and clinical relevance of circulating and biopsy-derived endothelial progenitor cells in lymphoma patients. Haematologica 92(4):469–477
Ruan J (2011) Antiangiogenic therapies in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Curr Cancer Drug Targets 11(9):1030–1043
Kerbel RS, Kamen BA (2004) The anti-angiogenic basis of metronomic chemotherapy. Nat Rev Cancer 4(6):423–436
Norrby K (2014) Metronomic chemotherapy and anti-angiogenesis: can upgraded pre-clinical assays improve clinical trials aimed at controlling tumor growth? APMIS 122(7):565–579
Pasquier E, Tuset MP, Street J et al (2013) Concentration- and schedule-dependent effects of chemotherapy on the angiogenic potential and drug sensitivity of vascular endothelial cells. Angiogenesis 16(2):373–386
Acknowledgments
This Project was supported by the key medical research projects of Hainan Health Department (Grant No. 2010-19).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Jiangzheng Zeng and Liangxia Yang contributed equally to this article.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zeng, J., Yang, L., Huang, F. et al. The metronomic therapy with prednisone, etoposide, and cyclophosphamide reduces the serum levels of VEGF and circulating endothelial cells and improves response rates and progression-free survival in patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 78, 801–808 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00280-016-3136-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00280-016-3136-1