Polatuzumab vedotin improves overall survival

<p class="article-intro">In a randomized phase-II-trial polatuzumab vedotin combined with bendamustine and rituximab improves progression free and overall survival in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).</p> <hr /> <p class="article-content"><p>Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 40 % of patients will relapse after or not respond to initial treatment resulting in poor outcomes especially if stem cell transplant is not an option. Developing effective treatment options for such patients is an area of high unmet need.</p> <p>Polatuzumab vedotin is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting CD79b, a protein expressed in DLBCL. Polatuzumab vedotin combined with the chemotherapy bendamustine and monoclonal antibody rituximab (pola-BR) demonstrated improvements in treatment response and reduced the risk of disease progression and death in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) DLBCL compared to treatment with BR alone. At the end of treatment, 40 % of patients receiving pola-BR achieved a complete response compared to 15 % of patients treated with BR. Additionally, median progression free survival tripled (6,7 vs. 2,0 months; HR: 0,31) and overall survival more than doubled (11,8 vs. 4,7 months; HR: 0,35) in patients treated with pola-BR versus BR alone.</p> <p>Based on these results, polatuzumab vedotin has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the US Food and Drug Administration and PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) designation by the European Medicines Agency for R/R DLBCL.</p> <p><strong><em>Reference: </em></strong></p> <p><em>Sehn LH et al.: Adding polatuzumab vedotin (pola) to bendamustine and rituximab (BR) treatment improves survival in patients with relapsed/refractory DLBCL: results of a phase 2 clinical trial. EHA Annual Congress, abstract # S802</em></p></p>