A trio of innovative drugs, designed to engage cancer cells and eliminate them in the most specific way possible. Their names are difficult to pronounce – polatuzumab vendotin, glofitamab, mosunetuzumab – but in the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma their action on the immune system is very promising, as evidenced by the results presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology congress. The first is a drug already approved in association with other molecules in the treatment of large B cell lymphoma, the second two are new molecules capable of binding to the CD20 antigen and to the CD3 of T cells, ferrying the action of these cells directly. on the sick ones. Those presented at Asco were preliminary results, which however bode well.
Studies
The glofitamab molecule was studied in a phase I trial and showed complete metabolic responses in at least 70% of both slow-growing and aggressive lymphomas: that is, in these patients, diagnostic investigations are no longer able to detect the tumor, which is then considered to have disappeared. A higher percentage than ever achieved with chemotherapy in the same type of patients. Mosunetuzumab, on the other hand, is being studied in combination with polatuzumab vendotin in patients with refractory disease, that is, unresponsive to other treatments, or relapsed, that is, has come back after treatment. The results presented at Asco show a complete response in 54% of patients. Finally, polatuzumab vendotin is also being studied together with rituxan and lenalidomide in patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma in whom it resulted in median progression-free survival to 6.3 months.
The illness
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a cancer that affects lymphocytes, a type of cell in the immune system. In most cases, it begins in the lymph nodes but can spread to other parts of the lymphatic system, especially the spleen and bone marrow, and to other organs, including the blood. It is the most widespread form of lymphoma and in Italy in 2020 there were about 13 thousand new cases. Among the different types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the most common is large B cell lymphoma, an aggressive tumor for which treatments need to be improved because, despite medical advances, patients often do not respond to treatment or the disease recurs. after treatment.