Follicular Lymphoma

Treatment of Relapsed Follicular Lymphoma with High Risk Status

Bruce D. Cheson, MD, recently shared the treatment options and decisions he makes when treating patients with follicular lymphoma based on 2 case scenarios during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspective presentation.

External beam radiation therapy can be effective when integrated in a multimodality treatment strategy for patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma, according to findings from a small, retrospective study.&nbsp;

Tazemetostat showed efficacy in heavily treated patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma in interim results from a phase II trial. Investigators hope that the analysis of a 62-gene panel biomarker performed on the same patient population will help to identify the patients who will have an even stronger response to the oral EZH2 inhibitor developed by Epizyme.

Approach to High-Risk Follicular Lymphoma

Anas Younes, MD, chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results from a trial studying the combination of nivolumab and ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Anas Younes, MD, chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses current research for staging patients with follicular lymphoma. In order to design new clinical trials, researchers must have reliable predictors of overall survival and progression-free survival in patients.

New indications were approved by the FDA within the last month, including abemaciclib for HER2-negative breast cancer, durvalumab for non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, and abiraterone acetate for castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

Progression-free survival was successfully predicted by a 23-gene expression-based model for patients with follicular lymphoma enrolled in the phase III randomized PRIMA trial.

According to phase I findings published in <em>The Lancet Oncology,</em>&nbsp;an&nbsp;objective response rate of 37% was induced in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with the&nbsp;PI3K-delta inhibitor umbralisib.

Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, associate professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses long-term findings of the ZUMA-1 trial investigating axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Treatment with the&nbsp;CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel, formally known as JCAR017) demonstrated&nbsp;a complete response rate of 63% and an&nbsp;objective response rate of 81%&nbsp;in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Combining consolidative radioimmunotherapy and sequential maintenance rituximab following chemoimmunotherapy improved progression-free survival at 3 years in patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma, according to findings from the phase II SWOG S0801 study recently published in <em>The Lancet Hematology</em>.

Based on supporting data from the phase III DUO trial and the phase II DYNAMO study, duvelisib has been submitted to the FDA for a full approval&nbsp;for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma and an accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma.

Lymphoma expert Andrew M. Evens, DO, MSc, FACP, has joined Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey as associate director. He is also serving as medical director of the oncology service line at RWJBarnabas Health. Evens will focus on integrated cancer care delivery in his roles across both institutions.

Progression-free survival was improved by nearly 15% with CHOP-RIT compared with R-CHOP alone in previously untreated patients with follicular lymphoma,&nbsp;according to findings from the phase III SWOG-S0016 trial published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology</em>.

Pfizer has announced that PF-05280586, a biosimilar for rituximab, has delivered positive top-line results, meeting its primary endpoint for overall response rate in the&nbsp;in the phase III REFLECTIONS B3281006 trial for patients with follicular lymphoma.