Dr. Younes on R-CHOP in Combination with Ibrutinib in DLBCL

Anas Younes, MD, chief, Lymphoma Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III study of ibrutinib in combination R-CHOP in patients with newly diagnosed nongerminal center B-cell subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Younes says this trial is important because this is a subpopulation of patients that have an unmet medical need. Comparatively, these patients do not do as well as other patients when they are treated with standard R-CHOP chemotherapy. Their progression-free and overall survival is suboptimal compared to patients without the nongerminal center B-cell subtype, Younes says.

Because of this, there is a lot of interest in developing new treatments for this population. This trial, which is currently in progress, adds ibrutinib to R-CHOP compared to R-CHOP plus placebo. The experience of single-agent ibrutinib was the rational behind this trial. In this study, patients with relapsed diffused large lymphomas experienced an increase in response rate.

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