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Summary: The treatment pattern and outcomes in patients with indolent B‐cell lymphoma treated during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic period compared to the prepandemic period are unclear. This was a retrospective population‐based study using administrative databases in Ontario, Canada (follow‐up to 31 March 2022). The primary outcome was treatment pattern; secondary outcomes were death, toxicities, healthcare utilization (emergency department [ED] visit, hospitalization) and SARS‐CoV‐2 outcomes. Adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) from Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate associations. We identified 4143 patients (1079 pandemic, 3064 prepandemic), with a median age of 69 years. In both time periods, bendamustine (B) + rituximab (BR) was the most frequently prescribed regimen. During the pandemic, fewer patients received R maintenance or completed the full 2‐year course (aHR 0.81, 95% CI 0.71–0.92, p = 0.001). Patients treated during the pandemic had less healthcare utilization (ED visit aHR 0.77, 95% CI 0.68, 0.88, p < 0.0001; hospitalization aHR 0.81, 95% CI 0.70–0.94, p = 0.0067) and complications (infection aHR 0.69, 95% CI 0.57–0.82, p < 0.0001; febrile neutropenia aHR 0.66, 95% CI 0.47–0.94, p = 0.020), with no difference in death. Independent of vaccination, active rituximab use was associated with a higher risk of COVID‐19 complications. Despite similar front‐line regimen use, healthcare utilization and admissions for infection were less in the pandemic cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe prevalence of frailty in clinical trials of lymphoma is unknown. We conducted a secondary analysis of the phase III LY.12 trial in which patients with relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma were randomized to different salvage regimens before autologous stem cell transplant. The primary objective was to construct a lymphoma clinical trials-specific frailty index (LyFI) using previously described methods. The secondary objective was to describe the association of frailty withover all and event-free survival (OS, EFS). The LyFI was constructed using 619 patients, and11% (N = 70) were classified as frail. Frailty was associated with EFS (HR 1.94, 95%CI 1.53–2.46) and OS (HR 2.01, 95%CI 1.57–2.58) in univariable analysis, but was only significant as a continuous (not binary) variable in multivariable analysis controlling for prognostic score, suggesting limitations of a FI in this trial population. Future work could validate the FI using clinical assessments and/or apply it to an older trial population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]