Objective: To assess the rate of objective response to pegylated liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride (Caelyx) in patients with advanced or refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).
Design: Prospective, open, multicenter study.
Setting: Thirteen dermatology departments in France.
Patients: Twenty-five patients with either (1) stage II to stage IV CTCL previously unsuccessfully treated with at least 2 lines of treatments or (2) histologically transformed epidermotropic CTCL requiring chemotherapy.
Intervention: Administration of Caelyx intravenously once every 4 weeks at a dose of 40 mg/m(2).
Main outcome measures: The response to treatment was evaluated by clinical evaluation.
Results: At the end of treatment, we observed an objective response (primary end point) in 56% of the patients (14 of 25): 5 complete responses and 9 partial responses. The median overall survival time was 43.7 months. For the 14 patients who experienced an objective response, the median progression-free survival time after the end of treatment was 5 months.
Conclusions: This prospective study demonstrates the effectiveness of Caelyx in treating CTCL, with an overall response rate of 56% in spite of the high proportion of patients with advanced-stage disease. Responses were observed in 2 subpopulations of patients in which the prognosis is known to be poorer: Sézary syndrome (overall response rate, 60%) and transformed CTCL (overall response rate, 50%). Moreover, this study shows that dose escalation to 40 mg/m(2) does not seem to improve the effectiveness but increases toxic effects (especially hematologic toxic effects) compared with the dose previously tested of 20 mg/m(2).