Although rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) is the standard treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), ∼30% to 50% of patients ...are not cured by this treatment, depending on disease stage or prognostic index. Among patients for whom R-CHOP therapy fails, 20% suffer from primary refractory disease (progress during or right after treatment) whereas 30% relapse after achieving complete remission (CR). Currently, there is no good definition enabling us to identify these 2 groups upon diagnosis. Most of the refractory patients exhibit double-hit lymphoma (MYC-BCL2 rearrangement) or double-protein-expression lymphoma (MYC-BCL2 hyperexpression) which have a more aggressive clinical picture. New strategies are currently being explored to obtain better CR rates and fewer relapses. Although young relapsing patients are treated with high-dose therapy followed by autologous transplant, there is an unmet need for better salvage regimens in this setting. To prevent relapse, maintenance therapy with immunomodulatory agents such as lenalidomide is currently undergoing investigation. New drugs will most likely be introduced over the next few years and will probably be different for relapsing and refractory patients.
Half of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) are more than 65 years old. These elderly patients frequently have other diseases, some of them severe, which may alter their ability to ...receive standard curative therapy. However, these associated diseases are heterogeneous and only a few contraindicate chemotherapy treatments. We reviewed all potential difficulties, such as the evaluation of comorbidities, the heterogeneous functional status of this population, and the consequences of the aging process that might be associated with treating these patients, and now propose solutions. As standard rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) chemotherapy may cure the majority of patients, it must always be the first proposed option. With this approach, elderly patients with DLBCL treated with a curative intent can reach a complete remission and have a similar outcome as younger patients. Reduced dose intensity must be applied for very elderly patients or those unfit for full-dose anthracycline. The critical question for a physician is why these patients cannot be treated with the standard regimen, namely R-CHOP.
Although the life expectancy of patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) has increased, little is known of their causes of death (CODs) in the rituximab era.
We pooled two cohorts of newly diagnosed ...patients with FL grade 1-3A. Patients were enrolled between 2001 and 2013 in two French referral institutions (N = 734; median follow-up 89 months) and 2002 and 2012 in the University of Iowa and Mayo Clinic Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE; N = 920; median follow-up 84 months). COD was classified as being a result of lymphoma, other malignancy, treatment related, or all other causes.
Ten-year overall survival was comparable in the French (80%) and US (77%) cohorts. We were able to classify COD in 248 (88%) of 283 decedents. In the overall cohort, lymphoma was the most common COD, with a cumulative incidence of 10.3% at 10 years, followed by treatment-related mortality (3.0%), other malignancy (2.9%), other causes (2.2%), and unknown (3.0%). The 10-year cumulative incidence of death as a result of lymphoma or treatment was higher than death as a result of all other causes for each age group (including patients ≥ 70 years of age at diagnosis 25.4% v 16.6%) Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index score 3 to 5 (27.4% v 5.2%), but not Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index score 0 to 1 (4.0% v 3.7%); for patients who failed to achieve event-free survival within 24 months from diagnosis (36.1% v 7.0%), but not for patients who achieved event-free survival within 24 months of diagnosis (6.7% v 5.7%); and for patients with a history of transformed FL (45.9% v 4.7%), but not among patients without (8.1% v 6.2%). Overall, 77 of 140 deaths as a result of lymphoma occurred in patients whose FL transformed after diagnosis.
Despite the improvement in overall survival in patients with FL in the rituximab era, their leading COD remains lymphoma, especially after disease transformation. Treatment-related mortality also represents a concern, which supports the need for less-toxic therapies.
We herein present an overview of the upcoming 5
edition of the World Health Organization Classification of Haematolymphoid Tumours focussing on lymphoid neoplasms. Myeloid and histiocytic neoplasms ...will be presented in a separate accompanying article. Besides listing the entities of the classification, we highlight and explain changes from the revised 4
edition. These include reorganization of entities by a hierarchical system as is adopted throughout the 5
edition of the WHO classification of tumours of all organ systems, modification of nomenclature for some entities, revision of diagnostic criteria or subtypes, deletion of certain entities, and introduction of new entities, as well as inclusion of tumour-like lesions, mesenchymal lesions specific to lymph node and spleen, and germline predisposition syndromes associated with the lymphoid neoplasms.
Summary Double-hit lymphoma (DHL) is a subgroup of aggressive lymphomas with both MYC and BCL2 gene rearrangements, characterised by a rapidly progressing clinical course that is refractory to ...aggressive treatment and short survival. Over time, the definition was modified and now includes diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with MYC translocation combined with an additional translocation involving BCL2 or BCL6 . Some cases that have a similar clinical course with concomitant overexpression of MYC or BCL2 proteins were recently characterised as immunohistochemical double-hit lymphomas (ie, double-protein-expression lymphomas DPLs). The clinical course of these DPLs is worse than so-called standard DLBCL but suggested by some studies to be slightly better than DHL, although there is overlap between the two categories. Present treatment does not allow cure or long-term survival in patients with genetic or immunohistochemical double-hit lymphomas, but several new drugs are being developed.
Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) characterized by the translocation t(11;14) (q13;q32) and a poor response to rituximab–anthracycline-based chemotherapy. ...High-dose cytarabine-based regimens offer a durable response, but an important number of MCL patients are not eligible for intensive treatment and are ideal candidates for novel targeted therapies (such as BTK, proteasome or BCL2 inhibitors, Immunomodulatory Drugs (IMiDs), bispecific antibodies, or CAR-T cell therapy). On the bench side, several studies aiming to integrate the tumor within its ecosystem highlighted a critical role of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in the expansion and resistance of MCL. This led to important insights into the role of the TME in the management of MCL, including potential targets and biomarkers. Indeed, targeted agents often have a combined mechanism of action on the tumor B cell but also on the tumor microenvironment. The aim of this review is to briefly describe the current knowledge on the biology of the TME in MCL and expose the results of the different therapeutic strategies integrating the TME in this disease.
To study the outcome of histologic transformation (HT) in a large prospective cohort of patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) who previously responded to immunochemotherapy.
After a median 6-year ...follow-up of 1,018 randomly assigned patients from the PRIMA trial, disease progression was observed in 463 patients, 194 of whom had histologic documentation.
Forty patients had histology consistent with HT, and 154 had untransformed FL (median time to recurrence, 9.6 v 22.8 months, respectively; P = .018). Thirty-seven percent of biopsies performed during the first year of follow-up showed HT corresponding to 58% of all HTs. Altered performance status, anemia, high lactate dehydrogenase level, "B" symptoms, histologic grade 3a, and high Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index scores at diagnosis were identified as HT risk factors. Response (complete v partial) to immunochemotherapy or rituximab maintenance had no impact on the risk of HT. After salvage treatment, patients with HT had less frequent complete response (50.3% v 67.4%; P = .03) and more disease progression (28.2% v 9.6%; P < .001) than patients without HT. Estimated overall survival for the patients with HT was poorer (median, 3.8 v 6.4 years; hazard ratio, 3.9; 95% CI, 2.2 to 6.9). Autologous stem cell transplantation improved the outcomes of patients with HT (median overall survival, not reached v 1.7 years) but not of patients with persistent FL histology.
HT in patients with FL who previously responded to immunochemotherapy is an early event associated with a poor outcome that may deserve intensive salvage with autologous stem cell transplantation. These data emphasize the necessity for biopsy at the first recurrence of FL.
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