Can I Cap the Prednisone? a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Comparing Fixed-Dose with Body Surface Area (BSA)-Adjusted Prednisone in Untreated Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)
Authors: Oliveira Lucas Villasboas de , AL-Jarrad Ahmad , Mwangi Raphael , Moe Christina , Nedved Adrienne N. , Hampel Paul J. , Villasboas Bisneto Jose C. 
Published: December 2024

Background: Chemoimmunotherapy using rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride (hydroxydaunomycin), vincristine sulfate (Oncovin), and prednisone (R-CHOP) has been the standard of care treatment of DLBCL for over 20 years. Despite its widespread usage, there is no accepted standard for the dose of prednisone in this setting which varies from fixed-dose (100 mg daily for 5 days) to different levels of BSA-adjusted dosage (ranging from 40-100 mg/m2 daily for 5 days). BSA-adjusted dosage results in high doses of prednisone administered to patients with increased body surface area which may lead to significant adverse events. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine if fixed-dose prednisone during R-CHOP therapy results in equivalent outcomes compared to BSA-adjusted dosing.

Methods: A comprehensive search of several databases from each database's inception to April 29th, 2024, English language, was conducted. The databases included Ovid MEDLINE and Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, and Daily, Ovid EMBASE, Ovid Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Scopus. The search strategy was designed and conducted by an experienced librarian with input from the study's principal investigator. Controlled vocabulary supplemented with keywords was used to search for prospective clinical studies of R-CHOP for adult patients with untreated DLBCL. Search results were reviewed independently by 2 members of the study team for final inclusion. Discrepancies were adjudicated by a third member and reviewed by the senior author. Prednisone dosage and clinical outcomes were abstracted from the available public data. Meta-analysis was performed using the metafor package in R version 4.2.2 by applying a mixed-effects model to combine results from the multiple studies. The analysis was first conducted overall to determine the general effect, and then stratified by prednisone dose (fixed- vs. BSA-adjusted) to explore dose-dependent variations in outcomes.

Results: Our search resulted in 2287 entries which were individually reviewed by the study team. A total of 30 studies with a combined sample size of 3573 treated patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis set. Nineteen (63%) studies with a combined sample size of 1930 patients (median 155, range 12-399) used fixed-dose prednisone. Eleven (37%) studies with a combined sample size of 1643 patients (median 70, range 9-439) used BSA-adjusted dosing. Overall survival (OS) at 2 years data were available for 11 (37%) of the studies. Progression free survival (PFS) at 2 years data were available for 8 studies (27%). Overall response rate (ORR) and complete response rate (CRR) data were available for 16 (54%) and 14 (47%) of the included studies, respectively. OS at 2 years for all studies was 84% (SD 78%-91%) and did not differ between fixed-dose (88%, SD 79%-97%) and BSA-adjusted dose (82%, 73%-91%). PFS at 2 years for all studies was 77% (SD 68%-85%) and did not differ between fixed-dose (80%, SD 68%-93%) and BSA-adjusted dose (74%, SD 62%-86%). ORR for all studies was 86% (SD 79%-92%) and did not differ between fixed-dose (86%, SD 76%-96%) and BSA-adjusted dosage (84%, SD 80%-88%). CRR for all studies was 70% (SD 61%-80%) and did not differ between fixed-dose (67%, SD 54%-81%) and BSA-adjusted dose (77%, SD 64%-89%). Heterogeneity tests performed according to available clinical outcomes yielded results between 0% and 76%.

Conclusion: The result of our systematic review and meta-analysis combining 30 prospective studies and a total of 3573 patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL treated with frontline R-CHOP found no difference in clinical outcomes between patients treated with fixed-dose and BSA-adjusted dose prednisone. Our findings provide scientific evidence for the widespread practice of capping prednisone at the maximum dose of 100 mg daily for 5 days, potentially avoiding unnecessary adverse effects from BSA-adjusted dosing.