Ability to Identify Genetic Type of Lymphoma Can Lead to Better Treatment Accuracy
These results could completely transform therapies, starting with clinical trials
While the new findings relate to current treatment, Dr. Staudt said he and his colleagues hope the new molecular classification will be used in clinical trials, so, eventually, treatments can move away from chemotherapy as much as possible, toward more targeted therapies that have fewer side effects with more positive results.
Research is already being done in this area. Results of a phase 2 clinical trial published in 2015, for example, demonstrated that patients with activated B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ABC DLBCL) were more likely to respond to the targeted therapy drug ibrutinib than those with germinal center B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (GCB DLBCL).
