Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Cancer Immunotherapy

Posts tagged ‘DLBCL’

Aggressive lymphoma… the very phrase is enough to send chills down your spine!

ASH Annual MeetingIn the past, much of the focus at previous American Society of Hematology (ASH) meetings in this area has focused on the myriad of chemotherapy regimens and dose/schedule optimisations that followed in trying to boost patient outcomes.

This year, I’m pleased to say that things have quite a different flavour with numerous new therapeutics and promising combinations in development.

Some of these are inevitably hypothesis testing, while others will be up-levelling to large randomised controlled multi-centre trials.

As part of our ongoing preview series, we take a look at the different categories to watch out for beyond chemotherapy.  These include monoclonal antibodies, antibody drug conjugates, targeted therapies and yes, even immunotherapies.

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One of the overlooked highlights from ASCO this year was new data in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), which is an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL). DLBCL is the most common form of NHL accounting for nearly one third of newly diagnosed NHL cases each year in the USA. Most of these people are adults rather than children.

The first sign of DLBCL is often a painless rapid swelling in the neck, armpit, or groin, which is caused by enlarged lymph nodes. Other symptoms can include night sweats, unexplained fevers, and weight loss.

Aggressive lymphomas such as DLBCL behave very differently from indolent NHL (iNHL) since they are faster growing and generally have a much poorer prognosis. As a result, they are treated much more aggressively with rituximab plus chemotherapy regimens such as CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone). Sometimes etoposide (E) is added in younger patients with a high disease burden, in which case the regimen is known as R-EPOCH.

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