Baseline and progressive adipopenia in newly diagnosed patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with unfavorable features are associated with worse clinical outcomes

Abstract

We retrospectively analyzed perirenal and subcutaneous fat thickness and their dynamics from baseline to end-of-treatment computerized-tomography scans in a cohort of 118 newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients with unfavorable features treated with R-DA-EPOCH regimen. Higher revised-international-prognostic-index (R-IPI) score was significantly associated with higher baseline perirenal and lower subcutaneous fat thickness. Up to 51% patients experienced perirenal and 40% subcutaneous fat-tissue loss during immunochemotherapy period. R-DA-EPOCH feasibility, toxicity and obtained response to therapy did not significantly differ regarding baseline perirenal and subcutaneous fat measurements whereas higher number of febrile-neutropenia cycles was associated with more pronounced subcutaneous fat loss. In multivariate-analyses subcutaneous fat loss of ≥6% (hazard-ratio (HR) =4.58, p < 0.001) and achieving response to therapy (HR = 0.03, p < 0.001) predicted overall-survival, and baseline subcutaneous fat thickness ≤24 mm (HR = 3.14, p = 0.023), baseline minimal perirenal fat thickness ≤8 mm (HR = 2.44, p = 0.042) and achieving response to therapy (HR = 0.04, p < 0.001) predicted progression-free-survival independently of each other.