Impact of the diagnosis-to-treatment interval on the survival of patients with CD5-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

We analyzed the impact of the diagnosis-to-treatment interval (DTI) on survival in patients with CD5-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (CD5 + DLBCL), using a data set of newly diagnosed patients. Among the 336 eligible patients, 247 (74%) received R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone), and 89 (26%) were treated with dose-adjusted (DA)-EPOCH-R (etoposide, prednisolone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and rituximab). The median DTI was 18 days (range 0–118). The short DTI (≤ 14 days) group included 135 patients (40%), and the long DTI (> 14 days) group included 201 patients (60%). Compared with the long DTI group, the short DTI group had more aggressive disease characteristics. Both the progression-free survival (PFS) (P = 0.01) and the overall survival (OS) (P < 0.01) were significantly inferior in the short DTI group compared with those in the long DTI group. Among 89 patients who received DA-EPOCH-R, no significant differences in PFS (P = 0.92) or OS (P = 0.86) were observed between the two groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that no DA-EPOCH-R was a risk factor for PFS in the short DTI group (P = 0.06). A short DTI was a negative prognostic factor in our CD5 + DLBCL cohort. DA-EPOCH-R could be considered a potential treatment option for patients with a short DTI.