Kelly Valla, PharmD, BCOP, Discusses the Mechanism of Action of Tazemetostat for Follicular Lymphoma

For the latest installment of the “Product Profile” in the journal ONCOLOGY®, our editors spoke with Kelly Valla, PharmD, BCOP, about the use of tazemetostat (Tazverik) as therapy for adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma harboring EZH2 mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test following at least 2 prior systemic therapies and for those who have no satisfactory alternative treatment options for their disease

Transcript:

Tazemetostat is a novel, first-in-class EZH2 inhibitor that’s approved for follicular lymphoma. EZH2 is a histone methyltransferase that is abundant in the germinal center where follicular lymphoma originates. In about 20% of follicular lymphoma cases, EZH2 is mutated. Tazemetostat is known to inhibit this mutated form of EZH2. What’s unique is that tazemetostat can also inhibit the wild-type form, which is abundantly prevalent in the germinal center, as well, so we found that there is activity in both mutated EZH2 as well as wild-type [disease].