DLBCL in Older Patients (SOHO 2023)
There is no proven benefit of CNS prophylaxis in older adults with DLBCL and it should be avoided due to increased risk of infections.6 R-CHOP remains the standard of care (SOC) for a majority of older adults with newly diagnosed DLBCL.7 In patients with high international prognostic index (IPI) score (2-5), R-CHP with polatuzumab should be preferred given its superiority over R-CHOP in terms of progression free survival without any increase in incidence of adverse events.8 Addition of targeted agents such as bortezomib,9 lenalidomide10,11 and ibrutinib12 to R-CHOP or intensification of therapy has not shown any benefit over R-CHOP alone. Similarly, maintenance strategies have not proven beneficial in improving outcomes.13–16 Ongoing clinical trials in older adults with DLBCL such as the SWOG 1918 study17 which is a phase II/III randomized study of R-miniCHOP with or without oral azacitidine (CC- 486), and the POLAR-BEAR study (NCT04332822), which is a randomized, multicenter, phase III trial comparing R-mini-CHOP with R-mini-CHP + polatuzumab have the potential to change the SOC in the next few years...The ZUMA-1 study showed an overall survival benefit of axi-cel over standard of care therapy in the 2L setting, hence all older adults eligible for CAR-T cell therapy must be offered this therapy.21 Both trial data and realworld data analyses have shown that the survival outcomes of older adults are similar to younger patients with CAR-T cell therapy with higher rates of cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity being offset by higher response rates.22,23 Data regarding the impact of GA on outcomes of older adults receiving CAR-T cell therapy is emerging and will help guide patient selection.24 The recent approval of epcoritamab for R/R DLBCL is a welcome advance that will greatly benefit older adults not eligible for CAR-T cell therapy.25 Other drugs available for patients ineligible for CAR-T cell therapy or for those who experience disease relapse post CAR-T cell therapy include polatuzumab-rituximab+/- bendamustine,26 tafasitamab-lenalidomide27 and loncastuximab28 or chemotherapy based approaches such as gemcitabine-oxaliplatin. Targeted drugs such as BTK inhibitors and lenalidomide are well tolerated and can lead to responses in patients with activated B-cell subtype of DLBCL. Exploration of aging biomarkers such as senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP) and epigenetic clocks can inform appropriate patient and treatment selection in the future.