Women with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma benefit from chemotherapy in the afternoon

Women suffering from diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) have better outcomes when chemotherapy is administered in the afternoon, according to a recent study.

Study result on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

In the study, only women benefited from chemotherapy in the afternoon.
When chemotherapy was given in the morning, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly shorter than with afternoon therapy.
There were fewer side effects and complications when chemotherapy was given in the afternoon.

Afternoon administration only useful for women

The Korean researchers compared the outcomes of morning and afternoon administration of R-CHOP in patients with DLBCL. They found that administering the therapy later in the day was associated with better outcomes in women. This is not the case for men.

Longer survival and fewer complications

For example, the data show that morning administration of chemotherapy was associated with significantly shorter progression-free survival and overall survival - but only for women. However, afternoon administration of therapy not only improved survival, but patients also had significantly fewer infections or febrile neutropenias.

Why do women respond better to therapy in the afternoon? The better effect of chemotherapy in the afternoon could be related to the circadian fluctuations of leukocytes and neutrophils, the researchers say. These fluctuations are more pronounced in women than in men.

Conclusion for medical practice

Afternoon chemotherapy can be associated with significantly better outcomes for DLBCL patients. In addition, the data from the current study showed that the timing of treatment was also associated with fewer complications and side effects.

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Source:

Kim DW, Byun JM, Lee JO, Kim JK, Koh Y. Chemotherapy delivery time affects treatment outcomes of female patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. JCI Insight. 2023 Jan 24;8(2):e164767. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.164767. PMID: 36512421