Management of Multiply Relapsed Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: New Perspectives

Patients with refractory/relapsed (R/R) non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) make up a very heterogeneous population with a poor life expectancy. The objective of this symposium was to provide an overview of the current treatment landscape for aggressive NHL, as well as the future research on new treatments. Transplant-eligible patients receive salvage chemotherapy, followed by high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Patients who fail transplant or are transplant-ineligible generally receive palliative treatment or enter clinical trials; there is no standard of care and thus there is a high unmet clinical need. Pixantrone is currently indicated for adult patients with multiply R/R aggressive B-cell NHL, thereby filling the unmet clinical need in this field. The symposium started with a brief overview of the meeting objectives. This was followed by an overview of the current and future treatment landscape for aggressive NHL, including a case study of a patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with multiple relapses receiving pixantrone as monotherapy. The results and post hoc analysis of the CORAL and the SCHOLAR1 studies were reviewed, including the relative merits of combination therapy versus monotherapy for patients with relapsed DLBCL who had failed second-line salvage therapy. The symposium ended with an outline of the profile and mechanism of action of pixantrone, and evidence from the PIX301 study that provided the basis for regulatory approval for the use of pixantrone in third and fourth-line treatment of R/R aggressive B-cell NHL. The clinical efficacy and safety of pixantrone were reviewed, together with a future perspective on the ongoing PIX306 trial. The symposium concluded with the presentation of two clinical cases of patients treated with pixantrone, a ‘Question and Answer’ session, and a panel discussion.