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Background: The optimal treatment of patients with heavily pretreated Hodgkin's lymphoma is controversial. Brentuximab vedotin is an active single agent in this context. Also, bendamustine can be regarded as a safe and effective alternative for patients with relapse after autologous transplantation and as an interesting cytoreductive strategy before allogeneic transplantation., Patients and Methods: An observational, multicenter, retrospective study is reported of single-agent bendamustine in 27 heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma, who had all received brentuximab vedotin as their last treatment and who showed disease progression, refractory disease, or early relapse. The primary study endpoint was the objective response rate, and the secondary endpoint was the safety of the bendamustine regimen., Results: The overall response rate was 55.5%, with 10 of 27 patients (37.0%) obtaining a complete response. In comparison, the overall response rate previously observed with brentuximab vedotin in the same subset of patients was much lower (18.5%). Among the 10 patients with a complete response after bendamustine, only 1 had had a complete response to brentuximab, with 2 having a partial response and 7 stable or progressive disease. With a median duration of response of 8 months, all these patients had maintained a continuous response at the last follow-up examination. The treatment was well tolerated, with rather infrequent adverse events and transient and manageable toxicities., Conclusion: Albeit with the limits of an observational retrospective study, these data indicate that bendamustine shows its efficacy in patients already treated with brentuximab vedotin, regardless of their previously obtained response and without any significant toxicity., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Lymphomas with involvement of soft tissues as a primary event are very rare. The published studies have a small sample size, most of them being reported as case reports., Patients and Methods: In this article we describe our experience with soft tissue non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) diagnosed and treated in our institution over a 15-year period. Moreover, we systematically review the available data from the literature in the past 2 decades, considering all the published series and case reports available from 1990 to 2011 using a PubMed access., Results: In the monocentric analysis, 16 consecutive patients treated at our Institution from 1996 to 2011 were considered. In the literature search, we selected 16 case reports (18 patients) and 5 case series (49 patients), including a total of 67 patients. Eighty-three patients were finally considered in the combined analysis. The most common histologic subtype was diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (>50% of cases in both groups). In both analyses we observed an inferior outcome for DLBCL compared with indolent B-cell NHL (5-year progression free survival: 34% vs. 64%, respectively, in the combined analysis; P = .01). Furthermore, the prognosis in the DLBCL group appears to be worse compared with the historical data of DLBCL patients treated with chemoimmunotherapy., Conclusions: Though indolent soft tissue B-cell NHLs appear to have a good outcome, soft tissue DLBCLs represent an anatomic-clinical entity with aggressive features, and dismal prognosis. Strategies of first-line therapy intensification could be considered. Studies aiming to a better biologic characterization of this peculiar entity are warranted., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma and despite recent chemotherapeutic advances up to half of all patients relapse. Here we report the results from a phase 2, single-arm, single-center trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of lenalidomide plus rituximab in elderly patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL., Patients and Methods: Between March and June 2009, elderly patients (65 years of age or older) with relapsed/refractory DLBCL who had been heavily pretreated were recruited. Oral lenalidomide (20 mg/d for 21 days of each 28-day cycle) was initiated for four cycles and rituximab (375 mg/m(2)) was administered on day 1 and day 21 of each 28-day cycle for four cycles. After this induction phase, patients achieving a complete response (CR), partial response (PR), or stable disease (SD) were given lenalidomide maintenance therapy at the same schedule for another 8 months., Results: A total of 23 patients with a median of three prior treatments (range, 2 to 8) were included. The overall response rate (CR + PR) at the end of the induction phase was 35% (n = 8). Ten patients (7 CR, 1 PR, and 2 SD patients) were eligible for lenalidomide maintenance and 8 of these patients achieved a CR. Adverse events were manageable and the most common included neutropenia and thrombocytopenia., Conclusion: Oral lenalidomide in combination with rituximab is active in elderly patients with relapsed/refractory DLBCL with a high percentage of patients achieving a continuous CR after lenalidomide maintenance., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: We performed a retrospective investigation to assess the efficacy of chemotherapy and rituximab as front-line treatment for primary bone lymphoma (PBL)., Patients and Methods: Between 1999 and 2009, 21 previously untreated patients received a diagnosis of PBL. All the patients were treated with anthracycline-containing chemotherapeutic regimens, with the addition of rituximab; 11 patients received consolidative radiation therapy after induction treatment., Results: Patients' median age was 34 years (range, 18-82 years); all presented with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Complete responses were seen in 95.2% of the patients treated. No relapses were observed at a median follow-up of 43.9 months. Eight-year overall survival and disease-free survival were 95.2% and 100.0%, respectively., Conclusion: These data indicate that the combined chemotherapy plus rituximab treatment may represent a suitable front-line approach in PBL, with a high rate of responses and an excellent long-term survival., (Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Based on historical data on the role of radioimmunotherapy (RIT) in pretreated non-Hodgkin lymphoma, we reviewed our hospital's clinical database., Patients and Methods: Between 2005 and 2008, 57 patients previously treated with at least 1 rituximab-containing chemotherapy were treated with Yttrium-90-labeled ibritumomab tiuxetan ((90)Y-IT). The median number of pretreatments was 3 (range, 1-9 pretreatments). A total of 46 patients had stage III/IV disease (31 with bone marrow involvement); 6 had bulky disease. According to histology, 53 were follicular lymphoma (FL), 2 were marginal zone lymphoma, and 2 were small lymphocytic lymphoma., Results: Overall response rate was 93% (53 of 57); complete response (CR) rate was 70% (40 of 57). Twenty-six of 40 patients (65%) who obtained a CR are in continuous CR (CCR) with a median follow-up of 20 months (range, 10-42 months); 4 of them still maintain their CCR after 36 months. All patients achieving a CCR had FL, and 21 of them with stage III/IV disease; 12 of 26 had been heavily pretreated (>or= 3 previous treatments), and 2 had had autologous stem cell transplantation. Toxicity was primarily hematologic and mostly transient; no grade 4 extrahematologic toxicity was observed., Conclusion: This study confirms the safety and high efficacy of (90)Y-IT RIT in heavily pretreated FL patients, with the possibility of having a subset of long-term responders.