Articles related to LYMPHOMA

The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has voted to support the use of polatuzumab vedotin-piiq (Polivy) in combination with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (Pola+R-CHP) for the first-line treatment of patients with previously untreated large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). The committee voted 11-2 in favour of the drug following the confirmatory POLARIX trial, a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study, which enrolled 879 patients with LBCL, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBC), not otherwise specified (NOS). Although concerns were raised about modest benefits in progression-free survival (PFS) and similar overall survival (OS) between Pola+R-CHP and the standard treatment R-CHOP, ODAC member Neil Vasan, MD, PhD, said that the benefits outweighed the risks and Pola+R-CHP should be an option for first-time treatment of DLBCL with curative intent, as it could spare patients from more toxic and complicated salvage therapies.

This CME program discusses how Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKi) have improved treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), and other B-cell malignancies. However, due to adverse events and treatment resistance, many patients discontinue treatment. A new generation of BTKi with a different mechanism of action (MOA) is emerging as a possible alternative. The program presents four modules that discuss the MOAs of covalent and non-covalent BTKi, current practices for using BTKi in treatment of CLL and MCL, the efficacy and safety data for novel BTKi, and the potential role of non-covalent BTKi in future treatment plans.

Following participation in this educational activity, hematologists/oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, and other members of the interprofessional team involved in the management of DLBCL patients should be better able to:

Dr. Christopher Flowers, professor and chair of the Lymphoma Myeloma Department at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the GO29365 study, which examined the combination of polatuzumab vedotin and bendamustine rituximab. The trial’s exploratory nature involved looking at the combination of polatuzumab vedotin with bendamustine and rituximab in a dose-finding component to determine the best dose to give to patients with follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

In this international, phase 3 trial, patients with large B-cell lymphoma who were refractory to or had relapsed no more than 12 months after first-line chemoimmunotherapy were randomly assigned to receive axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel, an autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy) or standard care in a 1:1 ratio. Axi-cel therapy resulted in significant improvements in event-free survival and response when compared to standard care, with the expected level of high-grade toxic effects.

A look into the results of a few patients that took part in a phase 1/2 trial at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City: a woman who had breast cancer for 23 years and gone through 12 lines of therapy and a man with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) since 2017. Both showed complete response to the novel vaccine.