There was also a reduction in lymphadenopathy seen in 94% of patients. The patients who showed a complete response took a median of 3.4 months to get there, and the median time to best response was 1.9 months.
The researchers also looked at response rates across a number of prespecified subgroups. Patients with Ann Arbor stage IV disease, those with bone marrow involvement, and those with extranodal disease were less likely to achieve a complete response (29%, 14% and 28% respectively). Patients with lymph nodes 5 cm or larger in diameter showed a 78% response rate.
While the Kaplan-Meier estimated medians for duration of response, progression-free survival, and overall survival were not reached, 87% of patients achieved 12-month overall survival and 67% of patients achieved progression-free survival at 12 months.
Most of the adverse events were grade 1 or 2, and included headache, diarrhea, fatigue, and myalgia.
There were no grade 4 or 5 adverse events, but 10% of patients experienced neutropenia, 9% experienced anemia and 5% experienced pneumonia. There was also one case of grade 3 or worse hemorrhage, but no cases of atrial fibrillation. Lymphocytosis was seen in 31% of patients.
