Incidence and risk factors of central nervous system relapse in histologically aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma uniformly treated and receiving intrathecal central nervous system prophylaxis: A GELA study on 974 patients

Background: Incidence of central nervous system (CNS) recurrence in patient s with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who did not receive meningeal prop hylaxis is about 5%. Controversy remains regarding risk factors associated with such an event preventing a rational approach of prophylactic strategie s. Patients and methods: We analyzed a cohort of 974 patients with aggressive lymphoma in complete remission (CR). All the patients received a CNS prophy laxis consisting of intrathecal injections and intravenous high-dose methot rexate. The risk repartition on the basis of the international prognostic i ndex (IPI) of these 974 CR-patients was low (L): 41%, low-intermediate (LI) : 27%, high-intermediate (HI): 19%, high (H): 13%. Results: The incidence of isolated CNS relapse was 1.6%. In a first multiva riate logistic regression analysis an increased LDH (P= 0.05, RR = 5) and t he presence of more than one extranodal site (P= 0.05, RR = 3) were identif ied as independent risk factors for isolated CNS relapse. Another multivari ate analysis incorporating IPI as a unique parameter showed that only IPI r emained significantly associated with a higher risk of CNS relapse (L-LI: 0 .6% vs. HI-H: 4.1%, P = 0.002; RR = 7). Conclusion: Prophylaxis notably reduces the risk of CNS recurrence in the h igher risk patients. By contrast, we propose the deletion of prophylactic i ntrathecal injections in the lower risk patients.