Successful Outcomes of Newly Diagnosed T Lymphoblastic Lymphoma: Results From Children’s Oncology Group AALL0434

Hayashi RJ, Winter SS, Dunsmore KP, Devidas M, Chen Z, Wood BL, Hermiston ML, Teachey DT, Perkins SL, Miles RR, Raetz EA, Loh ML, Winick NJ, Carroll WL, Hunger SP, Lim MS, Gross TG, Bollard CM. Successful Outcomes of Newly Diagnosed T Lymphoblastic Lymphoma: Results From Children’s Oncology Group AALL0434. J Clin Oncol. 2020 Sep 10;38(26):3062-3070. doi: 10.1200/JCO.20.00531. Epub 2020 Jun 17. PubMed PMID: 32552472; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7479761.

The Children’s Oncology Group (COG) protocol AALL0434 evaluated the safety and efficacy of multi-agent chemotherapy with Capizzi-based methotrexate/pegaspargase (C-MTX) in patients with newly diagnosed pediatric T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LL) and gained preliminary data using nelarabine in high-risk patients. The trial enrolled 299 patients, age 1-31 years. High-risk (HR) patients had ≥ 1% minimal detectable disease (MDD) in the bone marrow at diagnosis or received prior steroid treatment. Induction failure was defined as failure to achieve a partial response (PR) by the end of the 4-week induction. All patients received the augmented Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster (ABFM) C-MTX regimen. HR patients were randomly assigned to receive or not receive 6 5-day courses of nelarabine incorporated into ABFM. Patients with induction failure were nonrandomly assigned to ABFM C-MTX plus nelarabine. No patients received prophylactic cranial radiation; however, patients with CNS3 disease (CSF WBC ≥ 5/μL with blasts or cranial nerve palsies, brain/eye involvement, or hypothalamic syndrome) were ineligible.