Effectiveness of Single-dose Rasburicase in Patients With Lymphoid Malignancies at a High Risk for Tumor Lysis Syndrome.

BACKGROUND

Tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) is a life-threatening disorder that occurs mainly in patients with high-tumor burden hemato-oncologic malignancies. It results in metabolic derangements, including hyperuricemia and acute renal failure. The powerful management for TLS is a daily dose of rasburicase for up to 5 days before chemotherapy; however, the optimal dose and duration of rasburicase for TLS prophylaxis have not been standardized for patients at high risk for TLS. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy of single-dose rasburicase for prophylactic purposes in patients with malignant lymphoma at high risk for TLS.

PATIENTS AND MATERIALS: We retrospectively evaluated patients with malignant lymphoma at high risk for TLS treated with a prophylactic single-dose of rasburicase (0.1-0.2 mg/kg) from March 2012 to March 2016.

RESULTS

A total of 67 patients treated with a single-dose of rasburicase for prophylaxis were analyzed. A relatively large number of patients (n = 23; 34.3%) had the highly proliferative lymphoblastic lymphoma subtype (n = 14) or Burkitt lymphoma (n = 9) and were at the highest risks of tumor lysis. Two patients were newly diagnosed with TLS; the incidence of TLS after single-dose prophylaxis was 3.0%. Multivariate analysis revealed no predictable risk factors for response to prophylactic rasburicase, though increased level of serum creatinine approached statistical significance in reducing the efficacy of single-dose rasburicase to prevent TLS (odds ratio, 3.61; P = .054).

CONCLUSION

Our data indicated that single-dose rasburicase effectively prevented progression of TLS, and, regardless of any risk factors, including increased creatinine, single-dose rasburicase for TLS prophylaxis was useful in patients with lymphoma at a high risk for TLS.