Dr. Wistinghausen Discusses Targeted Therapies for Pediatric NHL

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, associate professor, Pediatrics, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses targeted therapies for the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

The Children’s Oncology Group is currently conducting trials with targeted therapies in the frontline setting. ANHL1131 is a phase II/III trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of rituximab (Rituxan) in children or adolescents with higher-risk NHL. These are patients with B-cell lymphoma or B-cell leukemia, says Wistinghausen.

There is also an open study evaluating chemotherapy in combination with brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) or crizotinib (Xalkori) in patients with newly diagnosed stage III/IV anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Brentuximab vedotin is an anti-CD30 antibody, and ALCL expresses CD30, says Wistinghausen. Crizotinib is an ALK inhibitor, and more than 95% of pediatric patients with ALCL are ALK-positive. The study, ANHL12P1, is currently recruiting for the crizotinib arm.