Category: Research Publications

REDLAMP 5: Rituximab vs. Watch & Wait Approach in Patients with Advanced Follicular Lymphoma

Conventional therapy for patients with advanced stage, low tumor burden follicular lymphoma can include watchful waiting until the disease progresses. In this video Dr. Kelly Trevino explains the findings of a study in Lancet Oncology that assessed the difference in quality of life for patients who used rituximab to delay chemotherapy treatment and those patients who took the watchful wait approach.

Previous #REDLAMP entries can be viewed on our Youtube channel.

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AACR 2015: Lymphoma Abstract Highlights

The annual American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) concluded last Wednesday in Philadelphia. Lymphoma related abstracts from researchers at the Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College, presented results that could lead to potential new lymphoma therapies. These included:

Longitudinal genomic and transcriptomic analysis of mantle cell lymphoma in a targeted combination trial of a selective CDK4/6 inhibitor

In this study researchers from the Meyer Cancer Center used whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole transciptome sequencing (WTS) to study the progression of mantle cell lymphoma in patients, who had previously taken part in a clinical trial testing the combination of palbociclib and bortezomib. The primary goal was to understand the difference in response caused by genetic differentiations in those patients who responded to treatment and patients who did not respond to treatment. Investigators sought to understand these genetic differentiations by identifying copy number variants, single nucleotide variants, and differentially expressed genes. In doing so they were able to identify molecular clues to the mechanisms of resistance presented in patients with mantle cell lymphoma. These results are being followed up with in functional studies. They could potentially offer greater insight into the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma.

Transcriptome sequencing of the Reed-Sternberg cells of classical Hodgkin lymphoma

Genomic studies of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) have been confined to cell lines due to the technological difficulties in isolating Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells from reactive background tissue. However, a multi-disciplinary research team found a solution to the issues involved in isolating these cells. A flow cytometric cell isolation method allowed for the isolation of thousands of viable HRS cells from cHL tumors, which enabled the isolation of high quality RNA from HRS cells and intra-tumor B cells from 9 primary cases of cHL.  The team also sequenced the transcriptomes of four cell lines, and conducted a search for activated pathways. In the future, this form of analysis of HRS cells will allow for the expanded study of cHL pathogenesis. This line of analysis could potentially lead to new individualized approaches to therapy through the identification of altered signaling pathways.

Researchers Sequence Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma Genome Identifying Potential New Therapy Targets

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-negative large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a common form of T-cell cancer, accounting for 15% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases in the United States. In a study published yesterday in Cancer Cell, senior author Dr. Giorigio Inghirami and an international team of researchers discovered the genetic mutations that drive tumor growth, potentially leading to new targeted therapies for T-cell lymphoma. They found,

“Massive sequencing data revealed that more than 38 percent of the tumors contained mutations in two genes, called JAK1 and STAT3. The researchers then examined the results when the genes were left intact and when they were blocked in cell cultures and in animals. They found that there was significantly less tumor growth when JAK1 and STAT3 were inhibited. JAK1 and STAT3 happen to reside along the same pathway, making them increasingly powerful to perpetuate harmful phenotypes once they are created. Dr. Inghirami likens this concept to a car (the cancerous cell) being propelled by gasoline (the mutations along a pathway that enable communication to continue).”

Said Dr. Inghirami,

“Now we have a class of drugs that will potentially work in this population…The interesting part is that pathway is now being found in different diseases – it looks like a recurring motif. So maybe we have the capacity to expand the therapeutic efficacy of this drug to others with similar phenotypes.”

Look to this space for more information about developments regarding treatments for ALCL and other T-cell lymphomas. Currently open clinical trials for T-cell lymphoma can be found here and here.