Pretransplantation [18-F]Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Scan Predicts Outcome in Patients With Recurrent Hodgkin Lymphoma or Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Undergoing Reduced-Intensity Conditioning Followed by Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation

BACKGROUND: The use of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (HG-NHL) has recognized prognostic value in patients who are receiving chemotherapy or undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT). In contrast, the role of PET before reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) and followed by allogeneic SCT has not been investigated to date. METHODS: PET was used to assess 80 patients who had chemosensitive disease (34 patients with HG-NHL and 46 patients with HL) before they underwent allogeneic SCT: 42 patients had negative PET studies, and 38 patients had positive PET studies. Patients underwent allograft from matched related siblings (n = 41) or alternative donors (n = 39). RESULTS: At the time of the last follow-up, 48 patients were alive (60%), and 32 had died. The 3-year cumulative incidence of nonrecurrence mortality and disease recurrence was 17% and 40%, respectively. The cumulative incidence of disease recurrence was significantly lower in the PET-negative patients (25% vs 56%; P = .007), but there was no significant difference between the patients with or without chronic graft-versus-host disease (P = .400). The patients who had negative PET studies before undergoing allogenic SCT also had significantly better outcomes in terms of 3-year overall survival (76% vs 33%; P = .001) and 3-year progression-free survival (73% vs 31%; P = .001). On multivariate analysis, overall survival was influenced by PET status (hazard ratio [HR], 3.35), performance status (HR, 5.15), and type of donor (HR, 6.26 for haploidentical vs sibling; HR, 1.94 for matched unrelated donor vs sibling). CONCLUSIONS: The current results indicated that PET scanning appears to be an accurate tool for assessing prognosis in patients who are eligible for RIC allografting. Cancer 2010;116:5001-11. (C) 2010 American Cancer Society