Relapses, treatments and new drugs

Abstract

We now better understand that the treatment of Diffuse Large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) must take into account individual factors related to the biological characteristics of tumors and patients. Treatment failure has dramatically reduced with the combination of rituximab and chemotherapy, mostly in the germinal center B (GCB) cell-like subset. However, salvage chemotherapy and autotransplantation are less effective in patients with previous exposure to rituximab. Therefore, new therapies should focus on poor-risk patients or on the non-CG subset. After reviewing the recent data on salvage strategy, we aimed to focus on novel agents that have been shown to be promising for future therapy of DLBCL (e.g., monoclonal antibody-based therapy and small-molecule inhibitors) and, lastly, to present perspectives on the use of these new agents in combination.