The Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes cohort study: Design, baseline characteristics, and early outcomes

To address the current and long-term unmet health needs of the growing population of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients, we established the Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes (LEO) cohort study (NCT02736357; https://leocohort.org/). A total of 7735 newly diagnosed patients aged 18 years and older with NHL were prospectively enrolled from 7/1/2015 to 5/31/2020 at 8 academic centers in the United States. The median age at diagnosis was 62 years (range, 18-99). Participants came from 49 US states and included 538 Black/African-Americans (AA), 822 Hispanics (regardless of race), 3386 women, 716 age <40 years, and 1513 rural residents. At study baseline, we abstracted clinical, pathology, and treatment data; banked serum/plasma (N = 5883, 76.0%) and germline DNA (N = 5465, 70.7%); constructed tissue microarrays for four major NHL subtypes (N = 1189); and collected quality of life (N = 5281, 68.3%) and epidemiologic risk factor (N = 4489, 58.0%) data. Through August 2022, there were 1492 deaths. Compared to population-based SEER data (2015-2019), LEO participants had a similar distribution of gender, AA race, Hispanic ethnicity, and NHL subtype, while LEO was underrepresented for patients who were Asian and aged 80 years and above. Observed overall survival rates for LEO at 1 and 2 years were similar to population-based SEER rates for indolent B-cell (follicular and marginal zone) and T-cell lymphomas, but were 10%-15% higher than SEER rates for aggressive B-cell subtypes (diffuse large B-cell and mantle cell). The LEO cohort is a robust and comprehensive national resource to address the role of clinical, tumor, host genetic, epidemiologic, and other biologic factors in NHL prognosis and survivorship.

Safety and efficacy of tenalisib in combination with romidepsin in patients with relapsed/refractory T-cell lymphoma: results from a phase I/II open-label multicenter study

Tenalisib, a selective phosphoinositide-3-kinase δ/γ, and salt-inducible-kinase-3 inhibitor has shown efficacy and was well-tolerated in patients with T-cell lymphoma (TCL). In vitro studies suggest a synergistic anti-tumor potential for the combination of tenalisib with the histone-deacetylase inhibitor, romidepsin. This multicenter, open-label, phase I/II study was designed to characterize the safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics of oral tenalisib twice-daily and intravenous romidepsin administered on days 1, 8 and 15 in 28-day cycles in adults with relapsed/refractory TCL. Phase I/dose escalation determined the maximum tolerated dose (MTD)/optimal doses of tenalisib and romidepsin. The phase II/dose expansion assessed the safety and anti-tumor activity of the combination at MTD/optimal dose. Overall, 33 patients were enrolled. In dose escalation, no dose-limiting toxicity was identified. Hence, the recommended doses for dose expansion were tenalisib 800 mg twice daily orally, and romidepsin 14 mg/m2 intravenous. Overall treatment-emergent adverse events of any grade reported in >15% of patients were nausea, thrombocytopenia, increased aspartate aminotransferase, increased alanine aminotransferase, decreased appetite, neutropenia, vomiting, fatigue, anemia, dysgeusia, weight loss, diarrhea, and hypokalemia. Twenty-three patients (69.7%) had related grade ≥3 treatment-emergent adverse events. The overall objective response rate in evaluable patients was 63.0% (peripheral TCL: 75% and cutaneous TCL: 53.3%), with a complete response and partial response of 25.9% and 37.0% respectively. The median duration of response was 5.03 months. Co-administration of tenalisib and romidepsin did not significantly alter the pharmacokinetics of romidepsin. Overall, tenalisib and romidepsin combination demonstrated a favorable safety and efficacy profile supporting its further development for relapsed/refractory TCL (clinicaltrials gov. Identifier: NCT03770000).

Mutations associated with progression in follicular lymphoma predict inferior outcomes at diagnosis: Alliance A151303

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is clinically heterogeneous, with select patients tolerating extended watch-and-wait, whereas others require prompt treatment, suffer progression of disease within 24 months of treatment (POD24), and/or experience aggressive histologic transformation (t-FL). Because our understanding of the relationship between genetic alterations in FL and patient outcomes remains limited, we conducted a clinicogenomic analysis of 370 patients with FL or t-FL (from Cancer and Leukemia Group B/Alliance trials 50402/50701/50803, or real-world cohorts from Washington University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, or University of Miami). FL subsets by grade, stage, watch-and-wait, or POD24 status did not differ by mutation burden, whereas mutation burden was significantly higher in relapsed/refractory (rel/ref) FL and t-FL than in newly diagnosed (dx) FL. Nonetheless, mutation burden in dx FL was not associated with frontline progression-free survival (PFS). CREBBP was the only gene more commonly mutated in FL than in t-FL yet mutated CREBBP was associated with shorter frontline PFS in FL. Mutations in 20 genes were more common in rel/ref FL or t-FL than in dx FL, including 6 significantly mutated genes (SMGs): STAT6, TP53, IGLL5, B2M, SOCS1, and MYD88. We defined a mutations associated with progression (MAP) signature as ≥2 mutations in these 7 genes (6 rel/ref FL or t-FL SMGs plus CREBBP). Patients with dx FL possessing a MAP signature had shorter frontline PFS, revealing a 7-gene set offering insight into FL progression risk potentially more generalizable than the m7-Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (m7-FLIPI), which had modest prognostic value in our cohort. Future studies are warranted to validate the poor prognosis associated with a MAP signature in dx FL, potentially facilitating novel trials specifically in this high-risk subset of patients.

Outcomes of Burkitt lymphoma with central nervous system involvement: evidence from a large multicenter cohort study

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement in Burkitt lymphoma poses a major therapeutic challenge, and the relative ability of contemporary regimens to treat CNS involvement remains uncertain. We describe the prognostic significance of CNS involvement and the incidence of CNS recurrence/progression after contemporary immunochemotherapy using real-world clinicopathological data from adults with Burkitt lymphoma diagnosed between 2009 and 2018 in 30 institutions in the USA. We examined associations between baseline CNS involvement, patients’ characteristics, complete response rates, and survival. We also examined risk factors for CNS recurrence. Of 641 patients (aged 18 to 88 years), 120 (19%) had CNS involvement. CNS involvement was independently associated with human immunodeficiency virus infection, poor performance status, involvement of ≥2 extranodal sites, and bone marrow involvement. Selection of the first-line treatment regimen was unaffected by CNS involvement (P=0.93). Patients with CNS disease had significantly lower rates of complete response (59% vs. 77% for patients with and without CNS involvement, respectively; P<0.001), worse 3-year progression-free survival (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]=1.53, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.14-2.06; P=0.004) and overall survival (aHR=1.62, 95% CI: 1.18-2.22; P=0.003). The 3-year cumulative incidence of CNS recurrence was 6% (95% CI: 4-8%) and was significantly lower among patients receiving other regimens (CODOX-M/IVAC, 4%, or hyperCVAD/MA, 3%) compared with DA-EPOCH-R (13%; adjusted sub-distribution HR=4.38, 95% CI:, 2.16-8.87; P<0.001). Baseline CNS involvement in Burkitt lymphoma is relatively common and portends inferior prognosis independently of the first-line treatment regimen selected. In real-world practice, regimens including intravenous systemic agents with pronounced CNS penetrance were associated with a lower risk of CNS recurrence. This finding may be influenced by observed suboptimal adherence to the strict CNS staging and intrathecal therapy procedures incorporated in the DA-EPOCH-R regimen.

R-MACLO-IVAM regimen followed by maintenance therapy induces durable remissions in untreated mantle cell lymphoma - Long term follow up results

We present long-term combined results of two clinical trials implementing R-MACLO-IVAM induction followed by thalidomide or rituximab maintenance in 44 patients with untreated mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). The first 22 patients (UM-MCL1 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00450801) received maintenance with thalidomide (200 mg daily until relapse/intolerable toxicity) and a subsequent cohort of 22 patients (UM-MCL2 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00878254) received rituximab (375 mg/m² IV weekly × 4, repeated every 6 months for 3 years). Considering all 44 patients, 41 (93.2%) achieved complete response (CR), two (4.5%) partial response (PR), and one (2.3%) was not evaluated for response. With a median follow up of 7.2 years (range < 1 month to 16 years), the 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 55.6% (95% CI: 38.9%-69.4%) and median PFS 7.9 years (95% CI: 3.7-11 years). The 5-year OS was 83.3% (95% CI: 68.1%-91.7%) and median OS was not reached. Patients with blastic variant (n = 6) had a 5-year PFS and OS of 20.8% and 60%, respectively. Myelosuppression was the most common adverse event during immunochemotherapy. Long-term treatment-related mortality was 6.8%. Note, R-MACLO-IVAM followed by maintenance therapy is an effective regimen to induce long-term remission in MCL without need for consolidation with ASCT.

Survival analysis in treated plasmablastic lymphoma patients: a population-based study

Herein we analyzed survival outcomes in chemotherapy-treated patients with plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) diagnosed between 2010 to 2016 (n = 248). Data was acquired from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 18 registries database (April 2019 release based on November 2018 submission). The majority of patients were male (81.9%) and younger than 60 years (71.0%). Oral and gastrointestinal (GI) sites were the most frequent primary extranodal locations (23% and 19.4%, respectively). Oral primary location was inversely associated with presence of B symptoms and advanced Ann-Arbor stage. The 3-year and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates of treated PBL patients were 54% (95% CI: 46.5%-60.8%) and 52.8% (95% CI: 45.2%-59.8%). Three-year conditional survival for 2-year and 3-year survivors were 90.3% and 97.8%, overlapping the survival of a general population matched by age, sex and calendar year. In a multivariable analysis, oral primary location was associated with not only better OS (HR 0.43; 95% CI: 0.21-0.88, P = .021) but also better lymphoma-specific survival (LSS) (SHR 0.36; 95% CI: 0.15-0.86, P = .022); age ≥60 years was associated with shorter LSS (SHR 1.73; 95% CI: 1.02-2.96, P = .043). Seven registries granted access to HIV status (n = 93) where HIV infection was detected in 52.7% of cases. The HIV status did not affect survival outcomes in unadjusted and adjusted analyses. We identified clinical characteristics associated with survival and showed that treated PBL patients may achieve long-term survival.