Safety and Efficacy of Bendamustine Monotherapy in the First-Line Treatment of Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Polish Lymphoma Research Group Real-Life Analysis

Abstract

Bendamustine is a cytostatic drug with a unique structure, combining the features of purine nucleoside analogs and alkylating agents. In patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) it is commonly used in combination with rituximab (BR protocol) both in the first-line as well as subsequent lines of therapy, and in clinical trials it is often combined with new targeted therapies. Therefore, the data on its real-life safety and efficacy are of clinical significance. As the Polish Lymphoma Research Group (PLRG), we retrospectively analyzed the efficacy and tolerability of bendamustine monotherapy in 96 patients with CLL. The median number of bendamustine cycles was 5, and 44 patients did not complete the planned 6 cycles (46%). Among the adverse events associated with the earlier termination of bendamustine treatment, infections were the most common (20.5%), followed by neutropenia (15.9%) and thrombocytopenia (15.9%). Dose reductions and/or delays occurred in 31% of treatment cycles (132 of 425) with neutropenia (17.9%) as the most frequent cause. Efficacy analysis showed an overall response rate of 88.2% with complete remission and partial remission achieved in 43.8 and 41.7% of patients, respectively. At the 24th month of follow-up, progression-free survival was 52% and overall survival was 69.7%. Bendamustine in monotherapy was found to be safe and efficacious, at least in terms of early response. Special attention should be paid to infectious complications, and especially that immune disorders are characteristic in the clinical course of CLL. Our observations suggest efforts must be made to ensure the proper timing and proper dose in the administration of the drug, and to avoid the premature termination of the treatment.