Role of Prior Rituximab on Outcomes of Asct in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis

Jie Ji1, Lan Lan2, Weidong Zhao3, Li Li4*

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of prior rituximab on the subsequent results of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for relapsed or primary refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The random-effect model was used with the relative risk (RR) as the measure indicator. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether rituximab was administered (R group) or not (No-R group) prior to ASCT. The meta-analyzed RR and 95% confidence interval in the R group versus the No-R group were: 0.83 (0.69,0.99), 0.84 (0.72,0.98), 0.94 (0.71,1.25) for two-, three-, five-year overall survival (OS); 0.91 (0.77,1.08), 0.85 (0.69,1.06), 0.85 (0.62,1.17) for two-, three-, and five-year progress free survival (PFS); 0.46 (0.27,0.80), 0.47 (0.29,0.76), 0.74 (0.15,3.52) for two-, three-, and five-year event free survival (EFS). The results show the treatment trend of pre-treating with first-line rituximab-containing therapy for relapsed or refractory DLBCL is more favorable than with ASCT-naive.