NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Nov 24 - In the rituximab era, patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) no longer need prophylaxis against central nervous system (CNS) disease, according to "real-world" data from a large national database.丽水市人民医院血液科曲志刚

　　The data confirm a low rate of CNS recurrence and show no survival benefit with prophylaxis, Dr. Gregory Abel from Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a multicenter team report online October 17 in the journal Cancer.

　　CNS disease in patients with DLBCL has a high mortality rate, prompting some clinicians to use prophylaxis against CNS disease in these patients.

　　However, practice patterns and outcomes associated with CNS prophylaxis have not been well characterized since the adoption of rituximab as a standard component of DLBCL therapy.

　　To investigate, Dr. Abel and colleagues took advantage of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Outcomes Database, which collects clinical and outcomes data for patients at seven participating centers.

　　They identified 989 patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL between January 2001 and July 2008, who had no evidence of baseline CNS disease and had received R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) within 180 days of diagnosis.

　　A total of 117 patients (12%) received CNS prophylaxis (methotrexate and/or cytarabine) either intrathecally (72%) or systemically.

　　Rates of prophylaxis were "modest" even among patients who had several high-risk features, "perhaps reflecting the continued national controversy regarding its use," the authors note.

　　Receipt of CNS prophylaxis was associated with involvement of bone marrow, other high-risk sites, more than one extranodal site, higher International Prognostic Index score, and higher stage (all p

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