Lymphoma Patients and Clinical Trials
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients whose cancer returns should ask their care team about clinical trials
- Clinical trials may offer a substantial benefit to people who do not qualify for treatments such as stem cell transplant or CAR T-cell therapy
- These studies offer patients top-quality care and advanced therapies that might not otherwise be available to them
"When patients have a relapse of most cancers, but particularly lymphoma, often they find themselves in an area where the data is not strong enough to really know exactly what the next best step is," medical oncologist Dr. Michael Jain of the Moffitt Cancer Center tells SurvivorNet.
Read MoreWhy Clinical Trials?
Through clinical trials, patients can access advanced therapies that are otherwise unavailable to the general public, getting top-quality medical care along the way. "The quality of care is very good in clinical trials.” Also, these studies allow people to help shape the future of cancer treatment by testing out potential new compounds and drugs, Dr. Jain says.For people whose lymphoma has come back after treatment, there are many new therapies that look quite promising. A number of different treatments are available through clinical trials for which patients may qualify, and which could be effective at treating their cancer.
He says the best thing for people who are looking for new therapeutic options to do is to speak with their oncology teams about what clinical trials are available to them.
What Kind of Therapies Do Clinical Trials Use?
Clinical trials use a variety of approaches to therapy. Some might test out new uses for existing chemotherapy drugs or new combinations of chemotherapy. Others look at entirely new approaches to cancer treatment, such as antibody-based drugs.
One new therapy that’s currently under investigation in clinical trials is called bi-specific T-cell engagers (or BiTEs). This therapy directs the body’s immune cells to the cancer cells. "In addition to recognizing the tumor, it sort of grabs part of the immune system to try and get rid of the lymphoma," Dr. Jain says.
Clinical trials are also studying drugs that reactivate a person’s own immune system against their lymphoma. And some investigational treatments bring chemotherapy straight to the tumor to spare neighboring healthy cells. One new therapy, polatuzumab vedotin (Monjuvi), is an antibody-drug conjugate. It travels to and binds to a protein on the surface of cancer cells, and then releases an anti-cancer drug directly into the cell.
There are also new alternatives to CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically re-engineers a person’s T-cells to help them find and treat cancer, but is a costly and time-consuming process. “There are a number of other types of cell therapies," Dr. Jain says.
"Exciting” Clinical Trial Options
Dr. Jain calls the range of available clinical trials for non-Hodgkin lymphoma "very exciting." Over the next decade, it will be important for researchers to determine the best drug combinations, and the best time to use these therapies, he adds.
Because of the large variety of clinical trials available, he suggests that patients regularly consult with their care teams. "Even to someone like me, who really studies this all the time, [the options for clinical trials are] quite complex," he says. "I really recommend for patients to consult with an expert on what the next best line of therapy could be."
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