Outcome of elderly patients with primary CNS lymphoma in the G-PCNSL-SG-1 trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the outcome of elderly patients with primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL) treated within the G-PCNSL-SG-1 trial.

METHODS: We reviewed response, toxicity, and survival of patients with PCNSL aged 70 or more enrolled in the G-PCNSL-SG-1 trial.

RESULTS: A total of 126 of the 526 eligible patients (24%) and 66 of 318 patients (21%) in the per protocol population were aged 70 or more. Among all eligible patients, the rate of complete and partial responses (CR+PR) to HD-MTX-based chemotherapy was 44% in the elderly vs 57% in the younger patients (p = 0.016). Toxicity was age-independent except for a higher rate of grade III/IV leukopenia in the elderly (34% vs 21%, p = 0.007). Death on therapy was more frequent (18% vs 11%; p = 0.027), and progression-free survival (PFS) (4.0 vs 7.7 months, p = 0.014) and overall survival (12.5 vs 26.2 months, p < 0.001) inferior, in the elderly. A striking difference between younger and elderly patients was the PFS of CR patients of 35.0 in the younger vs 16.1 in the elderly patients (p = 0.024). Elderly patients were treated less often and less aggressively at salvage. However, age was not associated with survival from salvage whole brain radiotherapy in patients progressing during primary HD-MTX-based chemotherapy (p = 0.633).

CONCLUSIONS: Lower response rate and higher mortality on HD-MTX-based chemotherapy as well as lower PFS of CR patients and less salvage therapy contribute to the poor prognosis of elderly patients with PCNSL.