Long-term remission in an adult heart transplant recipient with advanced Burkitt's lymphoma post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder after anthracycline-free chemotherapy: A case report and literature review.

ABSTRACT

Incidence of Burkitt's lymphoma post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (BL-PTLD) in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients in 1.4%-1.6% with unknown cure rate. We report a case of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) positive, late-onset BL-PTLD in a 24-year-old EBV donor positive/recipient negative female. This is the first reported case of advanced BL-PTLD post-heart transplant in an adult. This is also the first reported case of treatment of advanced BL-PTLD in a heart transplant recipient with a combined chemotherapy regimen without anthracyclines to avoid cardiotoxicity. The patient received 6 cycles of R-COEP (rituximab with cyclophosphamide, vincristine, etoposide, prednisone) over 6 months and subsequently 3 cycles of high-dose methotrexate (MTX) over 3 months for CNS prophylaxis. She remains without evidence of disease at 19 months post-treatment. This case demonstrates that an anthracycline-free regimen can be the therapy option for patients with BL-PTLD after heart transplantation.