Author: lymphomaprogram

Located on the Upper East Side of New York City, the Lymphoma Program at Weill Cornell Medical College/NewYork Presbyterian Hospital is internationally recognized for our efforts to enable patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease and related disorders to have the best possible clinical outcome, including cure when possible.

Lymphoma in the News: Lenalidomide Plus Rituximab Shows Promise as First-Line Therapy in Patients with Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

By Peter Martin, MD

The results of a phase 2 study of lenalidomide plus rituximab in patients with previously untreated indolent lymphoma were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in June 2011. Investigators at MD Anderson Cancer Center treated 75 patients (41 with follicular lymphoma, 19 with marginal zone lymphoma, 15 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia) with the combination and found that 90% of patients responded, with 66% achieving a complete response. Treatment was generally well tolerated, with only 5 patients stopping due to toxicity.

These results are exciting due both to the promising response rate and the fact that cytotoxic chemotherapy was not a part of the treatment regimen: Lenalidomide is an immunomodulatory agent and rituximab is a biologic agent/monoclonal antibody.

Currently, the CALGB is conducting a similar phase 2 trial of lenalidomide plus rituximab in patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma. The trial is being led by Dr. Rebecca Elstrom at Weill Cornell Medical Center and will provide important confirmatory evidence in a larger group of patients treated at multiple centers around the country. (Update: this study is closed to enrollment.)

Dr. Jia Ruan at Weill Cornell is leading a study of lenalidomide plus rituximab as front-line therapy for patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma (click here for more information on this trial).

A phase 3 trial comparing lenalidomide plus rituximab to chemotherapy plus rituximab in patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma is being considered in Europe.

Weill Cornell’s Dr. Ari Melnick on BCL6 Inhibitor Research: Implications for Lymphoma Research

Ari Melnick, MD, director of the Melnick Lab at Weill Cornell Medical College, was interviewed by the Lymphoma Research Foundation about his breakthrough research on a BCL6 inhibitor. Dr. Melnick discusses why this study is important for patients and what it could mean for the future of lymphoma research.

Click on the image below to read the Q&A.

Vitamin D and Lymphoma

By Rebecca Elstrom, MD

Vitamin D has recently received an enormous amount of attention as the realization that many Americans are deficient in vitamin D intersects with new data regarding the possible role vitamin D may play in regulation of cancer development. A frequent question from my patients has become, “Should I be taking vitamin D?”

Last year, a group of researchers from the Mayo Clinic reported that patients with lymphoma who are vitamin D deficient had a poorer chance of surviving their disease. This was a correlative study; it did not explore whether vitamin D deficiency actually caused the patients to respond more poorly to therapy. While it is possible that vitamin D played a causative role, it is equally feasible that vitamin D deficiency was a marker for patients who were sicker for other reasons, and therefore less likely to tolerate or to respond well to treatment. Further studies will be necessary to clarify whether vitamin D deficiency caused patients to do worse, and therefore whether supplementing vitamin D in patients who are deficient will lead to better outcomes.

Until these further studies are done, what should we do? There is no indication that having higher than normal vitamin D levels will be better than having normal levels; therefore, there is not a rationale for patients with normal levels to supplement vitamin D. However, for patients who are vitamin D deficient, it seems reasonable to supplement it to normal levels, whether it will directly impact lymphoma treatment results or not. A related question is whether every patient with lymphoma should be screened for vitamin D deficiency. Until the direct impact on lymphoma outcome is clear, I cannot recommend mass screening, but discussion between patient and provider is appropriate regarding this intriguing finding.