Laurie H. Sehn, MD, Discusses Preliminary Findings From the GO29365 Study in DLBCL

In an interview with CancerNetwork®, Laurie H. Sehn, MD, of the BC Cancer Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, discussed preliminary results from the extension arm of the phase 2 GO29365 study evaluating the safety and efficacy of polatuzumab vedotin (Polivy) plus bendamustine (Bendeka) and rituximab (Rituxan) versus bendamustine plus rituximab alone for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Transcription:

It was preliminary results from the extended arm that was presented. So, median follow up time was 15 months at the time of analysis, as compared to 49 months that we have on the original cohort. But what was highly encouraging is that the results are quite comparable. Importantly, the eligibility criteria were the same. So, it was designed to enroll patients with transplant ineligible diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. And quite generally, I'd say that the characteristics between the original randomized polatuzumab-BR arm and the extension cohort were quite similar. Although, the patients in the extension cohort were a little bit older, and there was a higher percentage of patients that had primary refractory disease. So perhaps a little bit higher risk than the polatuzumab-BR randomized arm. But despite that, in the short follow up, what we saw was that the complete response rate, which was 39%, was very much in keeping with what was recorded in the initial randomized phase 2 arm. And similarly, the median overall survival, which was in the range of 12 months was also very comparable. So, it really serves to further affirm the benefit of this combination, and very much demonstrates similar findings.