Targeted Therapy Responses by Lymphoma Subgroup

Mark Roschewski, MD, senior clinician, Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, Center of Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, discusses how different large cell lymphoma subtypes may respond to different therapies.

According to Roschewski, preclinical models have found that certain large cell lymphoma subtypes respond better to certain targeted agents. This has also been observed in clinical studies, most often in the relapse setting.

In the untreated population, little difference is seen by subtypes with the use of a targeted agent. However, a recent study found that specific genetic subtypes of diffuse large B cell lymphoma typically seen in younger patients, benefit with a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor. More research is needed.

0:08 | What we know is that our preclinical models suggest that there are certain subtypes of large cell lymphoma that will preferentially respond to targeted agents. We've seen that in clinical studies, most of those clinical studies have been in the relapse setting. And so those are slightly different patient populations. In the untreated patient population. We do have randomized studies that don't show much difference with the use of targeted agents. But recently, our group did show that there were specific genetic subtypes of diffuse large B cell lymphoma that seem and in younger patients that seemed to have a benefit when a Bruton it was added to our job. So, we don't know yet enough about the individual response to targeted agents within subtypes of lymphoma.