DLBCL

Tisagenlecleucel has gained approval from the European Commission as a treatment for adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma that is relapsed or refractory after 2 or more lines of systemic therapy, or patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory, in relapse posttransplant, or in second or later relapse.

Targeting EZH2, the catalytic subunit of the multiprotein PRC2, may represent an attractive therapeutic objective in malignant lymphoma, Vincent Ribrag, MD, told his audience at the American Association for Cancer Research’s inaugural Advances in Malignant Lymphoma meeting.

Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, Chief in the Division of Oncology/Hematology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discusses strategies for overcoming resistance in lymphoma during the 2018 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference. 

Mogamulizumab-kpkc (Poteligeo) has been approved by the FDA as a treatment for patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma who have received at least 1 prior systemic therapy.

Now that chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies have received FDA approval for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) after moving quickly through early phase clinical trials, research is now exploring ways to shift these agents earlier in the treatment paradigm, according to a discussion at the 2nd Annual Live Medical Crossfire on Hematologic Malignancies.

In patients with untreated advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma, PET can be safely used to guide treatment after 2 cycles of upfront de-escalated BEACOPP, according to the final analysis of the phase III LYSA study presented at the 2018 European Hematology Association Congress.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been granted an accelerated approval by the FDA for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), or those who have relapsed after 2 or more prior lines of therapy. The approval is based on results from 53 patients with relapsed/refractory PMBCL enrolled in the multicenter, open-label, single-arm KEYNOTE‑170 trial.

An objective response rate was achieved in 18 of 37 patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma who received the combination of the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib with the PI3K inhibitor buparlisib, according to findings of a phase I/II trial reported at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Durable complete remissions were seen in 46% of patients with high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with the CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel at 6 months. These results come from the updated findings from the phase I, multicenter TRANSCEND trial that were presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Based on data from the phase II JULIET study, tisagenlecleucel has received FDA approval for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma—including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, high-grade B-cell lymphoma, and DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma—after 2 or more lines of systemic therapy.

Enrollment has been halted by the FDA on clinical trials of tazemetostat in patients with various solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, according to Epizyme, the manufacturer of the EZH2 inhibitor.

Several new indications were approved by the FDA in March, including blinatumomab (Blincyto) for MRD+ ALL, brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) for Hodgkin lymphoma, and a 4-week nivolumab (Opdivo) dosing schedule across several indications. Here’s a look back on the FDA happenings for the month of March 2018.

Responses to lisocabtagene maraleucel have been potent and durable in the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Separate exploratory analyses of this population treated with liso-cel found that high tumor burden and a series of in ammatory biomarkers were associated with high chimeric antigen receptor T-cell expansion and higher rates of cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity.

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.