Pilot Phase II Trial on Safety and Activity of Secondary Prophylaxis With Romiplostim in Patients With Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Chemotherapy-induced Thrombocytopenia

High-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplant is considered standard of care for patients with relapsed and/or refractory aggressive lymphomas. High-dose chemotherapy, with or without ASCT, may also be used as upfront chemotherapy according to lymphoma histotype (e.g. primary central nervous system lymphomas, mantle cell lymphomas), advanced stage disease, extranodal involvement, and high IPI. Chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression results in various degrees of neutropenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia and related complications can lead to hospitalization, impaired quality of life, death, and increased healthcare costs.

While myeloid growth factors have reduced neutropenia and the incidence of neutropenic fever, and erythropoietic agents have reduced anemia and transfusions, chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia (CIT) still remains an unmet treatment need.

Thrombocytopenia is significantly associated with increased bleeding risk, platelet transfusions need, chemotherapy dose reductions and treatment delays, which usually compromise therapeutic efficacy. Platelet transfusions are also limited by cost, supply, and associated risks, such as transfusion reactions, transmission of infection, alloimmunization and platelet refractoriness. Alternative strategies are evaluating pharmacologic options to stimulate platelet production and to overcome CIT.

The predominant reason for a low platelet count in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy is a deficiency in platelet production. Megakaryopoiesis, the process of development of mega-karyocytes and production of platelets, involves a highly complex cascade of events, from differentiation of immature progenitors to maturation of megakaryocytes and release of platelets into the bone marrow sinusoids. Cytokines present within specialized bone marrow niches contribute to survival, proliferation, and differentiation of megakaryocytes. In addition to TPO, an essential growth factor for platelet production, there are several other growth factors and cytokines, such as IL-1, IL-3, IL-6, IL-11, and SCF, that contribute towards megakaryopoiesis at different stages of development and maturation. In the last decade, a number of these cytokines have been evaluated for the prevention and treatment of thrombocytopenia. Unfortunately, none has yet provided a commercially available agent with a high therapeutic index.

Despite very promising thrombopoietic activity, the clinical development of first-generation recombinant TPOs was halted due to immunogenicity concerns. This led to the development of TPO agonists with no homology to TPO that can bind the TPO receptors and activate signal-ling, leading to increase in platelet production.