Clinical study on the effect of etoposide-containing induction regimen for adult-onset Still's disease associated hemophagocytic syndrome

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of an etoposide-containing regimen in the treatment of adult-onset Still's disease related hemophagocytic syndrome(AOSD-HLH). Methods: This study adopted the method of retrospective analysis to collect clinical data of 43 AOSD-HLH patients, including the clinical characteristics, laboratory indexes, treatment regimen and prognosis. There were 7 males and 36 females, aged 24-40 years, with a median age of 30. All of them were diagnosed and treated in Beijing Friendship Hospital of Capital Medical University from December 2014 to December 2019. According to whether or not etoposide (VP-16) was included in the initial therapy, patients were divided into group 1 (VP-16 was not administrated in the initial treatment, n=31) and group 2 (the initial treatment included etoposide, n=12). Patients in group 1 who did not respond to the initial treatment were retreated with VP-16-containing regimen, and the effect of initial treatment was compared between the 2 groups. Similarly, according to whether the VP-16-containing regimen was applied or not, patients achieving remission of HLH were divided into group a (not applied, n=6) and group b (applied, n=33), and the laboratory indicators of the two groups were compared. Results: The overall response rate (ORR, 6/31 vs 11/12) and complete response rate (CRR, 1/31 vs 5/12) of patients in group 1 were significantly lower than those in group 2 (both P<0.05). Patients in group 1 who did not respond to the initial treatment were retreated with a VP-16-containing regimen, and we found that the ORR reached 22/24. Among patients in remission, the natural killer cell activity [16.3(14.2, 17.5)% vs 13.1(12.2, 13.8)%] and granulocyte counts [5.6(3.4, 9.3) ×109/L vs 3.9(2.3, 4.7) ×109/L] of patients was significantly higher in group B than that in group A(both P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in haemoglobin [103.0 (97.0, 109.5) g/L vs 91.5 (70.0, 118.0) g/L] and platelet counts [(212.2±74.2)×109/L vs (226.0±114.9)×109/L] between the two groups(both P>0.05). Conclusion: The remission status of HLH has an impact on the prognosis of patients. The use of VP-16 in initial treatment can significantly increase the ORR and CRR of AOSD-HLH patients. The application of VP-16 does not cause bone marrow suppression.