Dr. Flinn on Opportunities for Second-Line Tafasitamab in DLBCL

Ian W. Flinn, MD, PhD, director of lymphoma research and a principal investigator at Sarah Cannon Research Institute and director of the Sarah Cannon Center for Blood Cancer at Tennessee Oncology and TriStar Centennial Medical Center, discusses the opportunity for second-line tafasitamab (MOR208, formerly Xmab^®5574) as a palliative treatment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

The decision about which second-line therapy to use always begins with identifying the goal of treatment, says Flinn. In patients who have relapsed after standard frontline chemotherapy, such as the combination of rituximab (Rituxan), cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone in DLBCL, a decision must be made on whether it will be a curative or palliative approach.

Patients who are given a curative approach would generally receive salvage chemotherapy, such as rituximab in combination with ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide, and if they are sensitive to this therapy, then they go on to receive an autologous stem cell transplant. However, there is a group of patients where that is not an appropriate goal. For example, patients who are older with many comorbidities may not be able to receive such an aggressive approach. Tafasitamab in combination with other agents, such as lenalidomide (Revlimid), is appropriate if the goal for treatment is palliative rather than a curative in the second-line setting, concludes Flinn.