Dr. Rutherford on Double-Hit and Double-Expressor Lymphomas

Sarah Rutherford, MD, John P. Leonard, M.D./Gwirtzman Family Research Scholar in Lymphoma, assistant professor of medicine, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the classification and prevalence of double-hit and double-expressor lymphomas.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and of all lymphomas, Rutherford explains. Though it is an aggressive disease, two-thirds of patients are able to be cured with R-CHOP chemotherapy. For the one-third of patients who are not cured, researchers have been exploring the differences of their histologies and possible therapeutic approaches.

One example is that there are chromosome changes that can occur in some of these patients, causing them to have more aggressive disease that is not as responsive to chemotherapy. The chromosome changes are called MYC and BCL-2, and when 2 of these are rearranged it is called double-hit lymphomas, she adds. Double-expressor lymphomas are not rearranged, but there is an increased expression of these chromosomes.