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Ferrata Storti Foundation
Haematologica 2022 Volume 107(1):4-6
Indolent lymphomas: introduction to a series highlighting progress and ongoing challenges
Sonali M. Smith1 and Gilles Salles2
1Section of Hematology/Oncology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL and 2Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
Introduction
Indolent lymphomas collectively comprise up to one-third of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas, with an ever-increasing number of survivors. Despite the indolent course, patients are subject to repeated relapses and remissions, and exposed to a recurrent need for treatment and intervention. The ultimate challenge with these lymphomas is that cure remains elusive, and the impact of the disease on quality and quantity of life is significant; a portion of patients will die from either disease or treatment-associated toxicity, and lymphoma-related mortality remains the most common cause of death.1 Furthermore, transformation to a more aggressive histology can occur, and drastically shifts the management approach and progno- sis. Historically, the treatment approach was limited to chemotherapy or radio- therapy, and median survival times were less than a decade, likely reflecting intrin- sic resistance of indolent biology to agents requiring high cell turnover for optimal effect. The past few years have witnessed significant advances in biological insights, targeted therapies, and prolonged survival for most patients. This issue of Haematologica contains a timely series on indolent lymphomas, with three compre- hensive papers2-4 presented by experts in the field; the series is intended to provide an update on where the field is going in terms of new data and new perspectives, while also outlining challenges that remain.
Follicular lymphoma
As the first two papers highlight, sequential advances have dramatically improved survival for patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) which now borders on several decades for most individuals. We have finally come to a point at which most FL patients will die with lymphoma rather than from lymphoma. Unfortunately, determining individual prognosis at initial diagnosis is not yet fea- sible; as Cartron and Trotman2 discuss, prognostic indices at baseline (FLIPI, FLIPI- 2, M7-FLIPI, PRIMA-PI) are better suited to groups of patients rather than to indi- vidual patients. Furthermore, the type of treatment influences the robustness of these indices and further limits their applications. The authors also raise the limi- tations of the Groupe d'Etude des Lymphomes Folliculaires (GELF) criteria, and suggest opportunities for functional imaging with positron emission tomography and computed tomography for decision-making. Overall, we are unable to advise patients at the time of diagnosis on predicted outcome. Correcting this deficit is important for two reasons: we must identify those destined to do well, for whom minimal exposure to therapy is sufficient, and also identify patients with a short- ened median survival for whom new or aggressive treatments are not only justi- fied, but badly needed. For the former group, primum non nocere comes to mind, and watch and wait (or, as the authors elegantly state: “therapeutic abstention with dynamic observation”) remains the standard of care.
At the other extreme are patients with rapid kinetic failure who are only identi- fied after relapse, with two recently defined high-risk subgroups: early progression (defined as relapse within either 12 months or 24 months of initial chemo- immunotherapy) and double-refractory disease (typically defined as relapse with- in 6 months despite treatment with both alkylating agents and anti-CD20 mono- clonal antibodies). These groups are appropriately the focus for several clinical tri- als, with the US Intergroup S1608 being one example of a trial specifically com- paring chemo-immunotherapy against two biological doublets in patients with progression of disease within 24 months of initial chemo-immunotherapy (NCT03269669). Adding to the complexity, there is a middle group of patients,
Correspondence:
SONALI M. SMITH
smsmith@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu
Received: October 19, 2021. Accepted: October 19, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2021.280218 ©2022 Ferrata Storti Foundation
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