The role of upfront lenalidomide maintenance for primary central nervous system lymphoma following first‐line methotrexate treatment: A retrospective study

Abstract

Abstract Background Consolidation therapy improves the duration of response among patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL). Lenalidomide maintenance has shown encouraging results in older patients with PCNSL. Herein, we performed a retrospective, single‐center analysis to evaluate the effect of lenalidomide maintenance on the duration of response in patients with newly‐diagnosed PCNSL. Methods Sixty‐nine adult patients with PCNSL who achieved complete remission or partial remission (PR) after induction therapy were enrolled. The median age of patients was 58.0 years. The maintenance group (n = 35) received oral lenalidomide (25 mg/day) for 21 days, every 28 days for 24 months; the observation group did not undergo any further treatment. Results After a median follow‐up of 32.6 months, the maintenance group experienced fewer relapse events. However, the median progression‐free survival (PFS) was similar between groups (36.1 vs. 30.6 months; hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.446). Lenalidomide maintenance significantly improved PFS and overall survival (OS) only among patients who experienced PR after induction. The median duration of lenalidomide maintenance was 18 months; lenalidomide was well tolerated and minimally impacted the quality of life. Conclusions The present study was the first to evaluate lenalidomide maintenance as a frontline treatment among patients with PCNSL, PFS and OS did not improve, although the safety profile was satisfactory.

Keywords

• frontline maintenance
• lenalidomide
• methotrexate‐based induction chemotherapy
• primary central nervous system lymphoma