Unmet Needs Remain Unfilled in the Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Space

Thomas Habermann, MD, a hematologist with the Mayo Clinic, discusses the unmet clinical needs which still exist for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Many know the combination of rituximab (Rituxan), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) to be a highly effective therapy for patients with DLBCL. However, since its development, not much has been done in order to improve on the combination.

Because of this, experts, including Habermann, are focusing their research on the addition of polatuzumab vedotin (Polivy) to the combination in order to potentially improve outcomes for these patients. Their goal is to be able to cure 100% of those diagnosed with DLBCL.

Transcription:

0:08 | In DLBCL the unmet need is to cure 100% of patients, and until we get there, we can't be satisfied. If you take R-CHOP alone in advanced disease, beyond the limited stage up front, if you take all comers, we can cure about 65% of patients. If you took other tumors and looked at it, well that's pretty good, but that really isn't good enough. If you take the data that we presented on limited stage disease, we still have issues.

0:48 | We've come a long way in this disease, in both limited stage disease and advanced disease, but in limited stage disease there is a long way to go. We've decreased the toxicity and exposures and decreased the risk of developing secondary malignancies with less chemotherapy potentially, we've also decreased the risk of secondary malignancies as a result of radiation therapy. Now radiation therapy approaches have been also changing with proton beams and other approaches. It'll be very fascinating to see the whole evolution of where things are going to end up.