title: Overweight as an adverse prognostic factor for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy and autograft.
abstract: Despite detailed evaluation of disease-associated prognostic factors, little is known about the impact of overweight in autograft programs for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients. In order to address this issue, 121 NHL patients were retrospectively evaluated. They had been upfront (92 patients) or in relapse (29 patients) and received high-dose sequential (HDS) chemotherapy including peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) autograft. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters; overweight was defined as BMI > or = 28. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine the prognostic implication of overweight and other known prognostic indicators on overall (OS) and event-free (EFS) survival for the entire group and overweight and non-overweight (reference) subgroups. With a median follow-up of 3 years, the estimated 5-year OS and EFS for the entire group were 58% and 49%, respectively. Twenty-eight patients (23%) had BMI > or = 28. Their median OS and EFS were 2.2 and 1.4 years, respectively, whereas median OS and EFS for the reference group have not been reached, with a 5-year projection of 65 and 55%, respectively (P < 0.002). On multivariate analysis, the risk of death among overweight patients was 2.9 (CI, 1.3-6.2) times that of the reference group; using EFS as the end point, a similar association between overweight and survival was observed. In conclusion, in high-risk NHL patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy and PBPC autografting overweight is associated with a poorer outcome.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina e Oncologia Sperimentale, Divisione Universitaria di Ematologia, Azienda Ospedaliera S Giovanni Battista, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tarella
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caracciolo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gavarotti
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Argentino
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zallio
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corradini
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Novero
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Magnani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pileri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate