(Press-News.org) MIAMI, FLORIDA (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL DEC. 8, 2024, AT 12 NOON EST) – Two clinical trials testing the antibody loncastuximab tesirine (Zynlonta) showed encouraging results in patients with high-risk forms of two blood cancers – follicular lymphoma and marginal zone lymphoma. The findings, led by physician-scientists at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will be presented at the American Society of Hematology’s 2024 meeting in San Diego.
One study, a phase 2 clinical trial led by Juan Alderuccio, M.D., a Sylvester hematologist and lymphoma specialist and associate professor of medicine at the Miller School, tested loncastuximab in combination with the antibody rituximab in 39 patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who also had high tumor burden. That study will also publish Dec. 7 in the journal Lancet Haematology. Alderuccio is now expanding that study, which comprised all Sylvester patients, to include patients at multiple sites around the U.S. and to enroll a total of 100 patients.
The other study, led by Izidore Lossos, M.D., professor of medicine and chief of the lymphoma section of the division of hematology at Sylvester, tested loncastuximab alone in 23 patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma, a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in an ongoing multi-center phase 2 trial.
Both studies showed encouraging results for the new treatment in these patient populations.
Because both of these cancers are typically slow-growing, both trials looked at overall response and complete response rates rather than survival rates. For the follicular lymphoma trial, patients receiving loncastuximab and rituximab had a 67% complete response rate, meaning their cancer could no longer be detected by imaging, and an overall response rate of 97% — only one patient out of 39 had no response to the treatment. In the marginal zone lymphoma trial, 70% of patients had a complete response and 91% had an overall response. As this trial is still ongoing, Lossos is presenting interim results at the conference.
Overcoming High-risk Factors
Although these types of lymphoma are both typically indolent or slow-growing, patients with either type can see faster progression of their cancer and worse prognoses. For the follicular lymphoma trial, Alderuccio and his colleagues enrolled patients whose cancer had not only relapsed or failed to respond to treatment but also showed a high disease burden or had seen progression of their disease within 24 months of their initial treatment, either of which carries a worse prognosis. Follicular lymphoma patients with faster progression, known as POD24, have a five-year survival rate of only 50%, as compared to a survival rate of 85% for follicular lymphoma patients as a whole.
Most positively, the antibody combination showed similar response rates in patients with POD24 and those without, each of which made up roughly half the patients in the trial.
“Even in patients with high-risk disease, this treatment is able to overcome adverse prognosis factors,” Alderuccio said.
In the marginal zone lymphoma trial, the 70% complete response rate is the highest such rate in any trial for this cancer, Lossos said. Although this cancer is also slow-growing, relapsed patients rarely achieve complete response in other treatment settings.
Reducing side effects
Alderuccio noted that the treatment landscape for high-risk follicular lymphoma has changed dramatically just in the last few years. Patients now have many more treatment options than they once did.
“The prognosis for patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma has significantly improved over the last couple of years,” he said. “We have several options, and our goal now is to keep high efficacy but also decrease toxicity. And that’s what we’re trying to do now.”
Although other treatment options also show high efficacy, the antibody combination appears to pair that high efficacy with a low burden of side effects and a short course of treatment. The main side effects seen in the trial were a rash that gets worse with sun exposure (patients are counseled to stay out of the sun during treatment) and fluid retention, which can be treated with diuretics.
Because so many patients saw a complete response by 12 weeks of treatment, the researchers also recently reduced the treatment length in their study from 10 to 6 months. Alderuccio hopes that the relatively short course of treatment combined with low toxicity will mean patients can carry out this treatment without difficulty. One of the patients who completed the treatment in the trial was 89 years old.
Options for a Rare Cancer
The marginal zone lymphoma trial is unique in that most clinical trials don’t separate out patients with this type of cancer because it is relatively rare, comprising only 6 to 8% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases. Although other trials have included patients with this cancer, it can be hard to draw conclusions from those studies because the numbers of patients with marginal zone lymphoma are so low in any given trial, Lossos said.
Although it’s an indolent disease with a median survival of 10 to 15 years, many patients need immediate treatment as the cancer can cause significant symptoms such as vision loss. For most patients, even with treatment, they don’t see their cancer die down — complete response has to date been rare for this disease. That’s why Lossos is optimistic about the 70% complete response rate seen so far in the ongoing trial, which has enrolled 23 patients out of a targeted 50. Currently, sites are open at the University of Miami and City of Hope, and the researchers will soon expand that to five total sites.
“We are excited about the complete response rate,” Lossos said. “We are hoping this treatment will allow patients to live many more years than they used to be able to.
about Sylvester research on the InventUM Blog and follow @SylvesterCancer on X for the latest news on its research and care.
# # #
337 Loncastuximab Tesirine with Rituximab Induces Robust and Durable Complete Metabolic Responses in High-Risk Relapsed/Refractory Follicular Lymphoma
Saturday, December 7, 2024: 4:00 PM PST
Marriott Grand Ballroom 11-13 (Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina)
3032 Limited Duration Loncastuximab Tesirine Induces a High Rate of Complete Responses in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Marginal Zone Lymphoma - Report of First Planned Interim Futility Analysis of a Multicenter Phase II Study
Sunday, December 8, 2024, 6:00 PM-8:00 PM PST
Halls G-H (San Diego Convention Center)
(STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL DEC. 8, 2024, AT 12 NOON EST)
END
HONG KONG (8 December 2024)—A new vortex electric field with the potential to enhance future electronic, magnetic and optical devices has been observed by researchers from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and local partners.
The research, published in Science, is highly valuable as it can upgrade the operation of many devices, including strengthening memory stability and computing speed. With further research, the discovery of the vortex electric field can even later impact the fields of quantum computing, spintronics, and nanotechnology.
“Previously, generating a vortex electric field required expensive thin film deposition techniques and complex procedures. However, our ...
Though he doesn’t remember it, Branden Baptiste had his first sickle cell crisis at age 2. Through elementary school, he was in and out of the hospital with pain episodes, not knowing why. As he got older, he learned he had sickle cell disease: His red blood cells were forming sickle shapes and getting stuck in his blood stream, preventing oxygen from reaching his tissues.
“From age 12, things skyrocketed,” says Branden, now 20. “I was in the hospital every other month with crises.” He estimates he missed 60 days of school every year.
In sixth grade, Branden had to have his left hip replaced ...
SAN DIEGO – A simple dietary supplement may provide a new approach to boost CAR T cell function, according to a study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center. While the approach needs to be assessed in clinical trials, the early research, shared in a press briefing today at the 66th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 4), hints at a potentially cost-effective strategy to improve CAR T cell function and cancer-fighting abilities.
CAR T cell therapy is a ...
Today researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) reported results from the first ever clinical trial to show that a high fiber plant based dietary intervention may delay progression to multiple myeloma, a type of rare, incurable blood cancer affecting the bone marrow. The study enrolled 20 participants with a precancerous blood disorder and an elevated body mass index (BMI) at risk for developing multiple myeloma. They received 12 weeks of high fiber plant-based meals and 24 weeks of coaching. Two participants with progressing disease prior to study showed a significant improvement of their disease progression trajectory. Additionally, at one year ...
Just days before his fourth birthday, Santiago was diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common cancer in children.
He began chemotherapy the next day, and the outlook was promising – disease-free survival rates for B-ALL are among the highest for paediatric cancers, at 80 to 85 per cent. However, limited progress has been made over the last 15 years, and relapsed B-ALL remains a leading cause of cancer death among children.
Seeking to explore all options, Santiago’s parents enrolled him in a Children’s Oncology Group clinical trial led by scientists ...
Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University showed that agricultural land preserved around river confluences can help mitigate floods. They make a case for Eco-DRR, an approach that uses existing environmental resources to improve resilience against flooding. Statistical analysis showed that municipalities with agricultural land in areas with high water storage potential suffered fewer floods, with stronger correlation when agricultural land was situated near river confluences. The team hope their findings inform effective land usage.
Climate change has brought ...
In fields ranging from immunology and ecology to economics and thermodynamics, multi-scale complex systems are ubiquitous. They are also notoriously difficult to model. Conventional approaches take either a bottom-up or top-down approach. But in disturbed systems, such as a post-fire forest ecosystem or a society in a pandemic, these unidirectional models can’t capture the interactions between the small-scale behaviors and the system-level properties. SFI External Professor John Harte (UC Berkeley) and his collaborators have worked to resolve this challenge by building a hybrid method that links bottom-up behaviors and top-down causation in a single theory.
Harte et ...
Experts have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to better understand the impact a gluten free diet has on people with coeliac disease, which could be the first step towards finding new ways of treating the condition.
The MARCO study – MAgnetic Resonance Imaging in COliac disease – which is published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), was led by experts from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, alongside colleagues at the Quadram Institute.
Coeliac disease is a chronic condition affecting around one person in every 100 in the general population. When people with coeliac ...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – BK polyomavirus, or BKPyV, is a major cause of kidney transplant failure. There are no effective drugs to treat BKPyV. Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reveals new aspects of BKPyV replication, offering possible drug targets to protect transplanted kidneys.
To better understand BKPyV replication and ways to prevent it, researchers in the UAB Department of Microbiology have published a single-cell analysis of BKPyV infection in primary kidney cells. Their findings contradict a long-held understanding of the molecular events required for BKPyV ...
Irvine, Calif., Dec. 6, 2024 — Recent decades have seen a rapid surge in damages and disruptions caused by flooding. In a commentary article published today in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom – the latter also executives of U.K. flood risk intelligence firm Fathom – call on scientists to more accurately model these risks and caution against overly dramatized reporting of future risks in the news media.
In the paper, the researchers urge the climate science community to turn ...
