Bortezomib in combination with infusional dose-adjusted EPOCH for the treatment of plasmablastic lymphoma.

Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) is a rare and aggressive CD20-negative lymphoma. Despite improvements of the biology behind PBL, it still represents a challenge from the diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives for pathologists and clinicians. PBL is characterized by high rates of relapse and short median survival with standard approaches. Here, we report the use of the combination of bortezomib and infusional etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide and doxorubicin (V-EPOCH) in three patients with PBL; two were HIV-positive and one was HIV-negative. All three patients obtained a durable complete response to V-EPOCH with survival times of 24, 18 and 12 months respectively.