Relevance of different prognostic scores in primary CNS lymphoma in the era of intensified treatment regimens: A retrospective, multicenter analysis of 174 patients.

Objectives: Treatment intensification (including consolidative high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation [HDT-ASCT]) significantly improved outcome in primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) patients.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter, retrospective analysis of newly diagnosed PCNSL patients, treated with intensified treatment regimens. The following scores were evaluated in terms of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS): Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG), and three-factor (3F) prognostic score. Further, all scores were comparatively investigated for model quality and concordance.

Results: Altogether, 174 PCNSL patients were included. One hundred and five patients (60.3%) underwent HDT-ASCT. Two-year OS and 2-year PFS for the entire population were 73.3% and 48.5%, respectively. The MSKCC (p = .003) and 3F score (p < .001), but not the IELSG score (p = .06), had the discriminatory power to identify different risk groups for OS. In regard to concordance, the 3F score (C-index [0.71]) outperformed both the MSKCC (C-index [0.64]) and IELSG (C-index [0.53]) score. Moreover, the superiority of the 3F score was shown for PFS, successfully stratifying patients in three risk groups, which also resulted in the highest C-index (0.66).

Conclusion: The comparative analysis of established PCNSL risk scores affirm the clinical utility of the 3F score stratifying the widest prognostic spectrum among PCNSL patients treated with intensified treatment approaches.