Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) Preview

DLBCL is an aggressive blood cancer and the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), with around 40,000 news cases diagnosed in Europe every year and another 25,000 detected in the US.

While ASCO 2022 annual meeting is nearby, pharma giants namely Seagen, Hoffmann-La Roche, and others are looking at this opportunity to present their data readouts for different cancers including DLBCL. Delveinsight, maintaining an essence of brevity, has compiled all the upcoming important abstracts while discussing a few.

Abstract Number – 7500

Roche to present pivotal Phase II expansion results of glofitamab in patients with R/R DLBCL. The first-in-class CD20xCD3 T-cell engaging bispecific antibody to follow Polivy’s footsteps?

Glofitamab is part of Roche’s broad bispecific antibody development program, which may offer a new immunotherapy-based approach to tackle a range of blood cancers. According to the recent data, a total of 51.6% of patients responded to the treatment with glofitamab, and among these 39.4% patients achieved a complete response, with the majority of the latter (almost 78%) lasting for at least 12 months. Apart from that, the results also suggests that glofitamab could be an effective companion to Roche’s CD79b-directed ADC Polivy (Polatuzumab Vedotin), which was approved in the EU earlier this week for previously untreated DLBCL and has been tipped to become a USD 2 billion-plus blockbuster. Based on these data it can be anticipated that glofitamab has the potential to offer a readily available, fixed-duration treatment approach for people with aggressive lymphoma.

As per the above-mentioned positive outcomes, it can be estimated that the upcoming pivotal results can be encouraging, which can support the potential of glofitamab for patients who have failed multiple prior lines of therapy and need new treatment options urgently. We keenly await the data from the Phase II study, which will be published on June 3, 2022, at the ASCO 2022 conference as an oral abstract session.

Abstract Number - 7559

Seagen’s Adcetris (Brentuximab Vedotin), an antibody-drug conjugate for R/R DLBCL

 Seagen is all set to present the safety and efficacy results from the Phase III ECHELON-3 study. ADCs are a promising class of immunotherapies with the potential to specifically target tumor cells and ameliorate the therapeutic index of cytotoxic drugs. As the efficacy and safety of ADCs have moved in synchrony with advances in their design, it will be interesting to watch the findings from the ECHELON-3 study on June 4, 2022, at the ASCO 2022 conference as a poster session.

Conclusion

The recent data of glofitamab brings it one step closer towards the goal of finding solutions for people with heavily pre-treated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, which often relapses and becomes more aggressive. Moreover, the potential of glofitamab as a new fixed-duration, readily available treatment could be instrumental to improving outcomes for people with this difficult-to-treat cancer who otherwise have limited options. The expansion data from the upcoming Phase II trial in DLBCL is most awaited for this cancer. Apart from that, the role of ADCs will also play important role in the treatment of patients with R/R DLBCL. Therefore, it will be very interesting to watch out the results of these two different class of therapies.

The key abstracts have been summarized in the table below: