The Road to Improving Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Treatment

In season 3, episode 5 of Targeted Talks, Thomas Habermann, MD, a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, discusses the latest advances in the treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

After administering radiation therapy in the frontline setting to patients with DLBCL for many years, PET-adapted therapeutic approaches were introduced. Then, across roughly 25 clinical trials, explains Habermann, investigators explored the efficacy and safety of the rituximab (Rituxan), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP), which became the standard of care regimen for DLBCL treatment.

In recent years, clinical trials are assessing targeted therapies and immunotherapies, including chimeric antigen receptor T cells with the goal of improving on the standard of care.

According to Habermann, the most important thing to focus on with the next wave of therapies is curing 100% of patients with DLBCL. Currently, this is only possible in 65% of patients who received R-CHOP, explains Habermann. Improvement in both systemic and radiation therapies signal hope that the field is moving in the right direction, Haberman notes.