International study of SS shows superiority of combination therapy & heterogeneity of treatment strategies

Abstract

Despite increasing availability of therapies, patients with Sezary syndrome (SS) commonly endure multi-line treatment journeys, mostly with partial responses of short duration. Measuring clinical benefit is challenging; time-to-next-treatment (TTNT) provides a robust, objective measurement of efficacy. This international observational study, from three quaternary centers, examines patterns of clinical care and therapeutic benefit as measured by TTNT. TTNT was calculated for monotherapies and combination therapies, with consideration given to treatment line. 178 patients with SS (73% de novo, 27% secondary) were included, receiving 721 lines of systemic therapy, with median follow-up of 56.9 months. Across all lines, 58 different therapeutic regimens were prescribed (54 were systemic therapies), and classified into 17 treatment groups. First-line, the most common treatments were extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP)-containing combination therapy (20%) and retinoid monotherapy (19%). Median TTNT for all first-line therapies was short (5.4 months). First-line, combination therapies had longer median TTNT than monotherapies: 10.0 vs 5.0 months (p=0.004), respectively. Later delivery of combination therapies was associated with shorter clinical benefit, with median TTNT reduced to 6.2 and 2.2 months for midline (2nd-4th line) and late line (>4th line), respectively (p<0.001). First-line, ECP-containing treatments were associated with longer median TTNT compared to non ECP-containing treatments: 9.0 vs 4.9 months (p=0.007). For both ECP-monotherapy and ECP-containing combination therapy, significant reductions in TTNT were seen in later lines. These data suggest therapeutic benefit from first-line delivery of combination therapy for patients with SS, and favor early inclusion of ECP in the treatment algorithm for those who can access it.