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Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) remains a disease with poor outcome and high recurrence rate. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 243 immunocompetent patients with PCNSL in Beijing Tiantan Hospital. The median age of PCNSL patients was 57 years (range 10-95 years). For induction therapy, 94.7% of patients received high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) containing regimens, and 59.3% received rituximab, which increased over time. The overall response rate was 72.8%, with 58.8% achieving complete response. With a median follow-up of 27.0 months (95% confidence interval 23.6-30.4), the median progression-free survival (PFS) time was 14.0 months (95% CI 9.45-18.55), and the 2-year PFS rate was 33.2%. The median overall survival (OS) was not reached (NR), with an estimated overall survival rate at 4 years of 61.6%. Among 95 patients who completed sequential consolidation chemotherapy with either pemetrexed or etoposide plus cytarabine, the median PFS was 28 months (95% CI 17.11-38.89), and the estimated overall survival at 4 years was 78.7%. In conclusion, HD-MTX based induction chemotherapy with non-myeloablative sequential consolidation chemotherapy is an alternative feasible treatment option.

BackgroundCentral nervous system lymphoma (CNSL) is an aggressive lymphoma. Studies investigating primary CNSL determined that the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) played an important role in pathogenesis. Ibrutinib, an oral BTK inhibitor, is a new treatment strategy for CNSL. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to clarify the effectiveness and safety of ibrutinib in the treatment of CNSL.MethodsA systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was conducted through to 31 October 2019. Studies involving patients with CNSL who received ibrutinib that reported the overall response (OR), complete remission (CR), and partial response (PR) were included. The random-effects or fixed-effects model with double arcsine transformation was used for the pooled rates and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were determined for all outcomes.ResultsEight studies including 162 patients were identified and included in the meta-analysis. The pooled OR rate after treatment with ibrutinib was 69% (95% CI, 61–79%, I2 = 47.57%, p = 0.06), while the pooled CR and PR was 52% (95% CI, 35–68%, I2 = 74.95%, p = 0.00) and 17% (95% CI, 7–30%, I2 = 67.85%, p = 0.00), respectively. Among PCNSL patients, including new diagnoses PCNSL and R/R PCNSL, the pooled OR rate was 72% (95% CI, 63–80%, I2 = 49.20%, p = 0.06) while the pooled CR and PR rates were 53% (95% CI, 33–73%, I2 = 75.04%, p = 0.00) and 22% (95% CI, 14–30%, I2 = 46.30%, p = 0.07), respectively. Common adverse events above grade 3 included cytopenia and infections.ConclusionsThe ibrutinib-containing therapy was well tolerated and offered incremental benefit to patients with CNSL. However, randomized-controlled studies that directly compare efficacy and adverse events of ibrutinib are still needed.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42020218974.