State-of-the-art therapeutics: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

This article is a review of the improvement in the treatment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma made during the last 10 years. Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma now have a better outcome with longer survival because of two major developments: (1) increasing the dose of active drugs with shortening the time between cycles, resulting in dose-dense and/or dose-intense regimens; and (2) combining rituximab with chemotherapy. Both strategies were associated with higher response rates, lower relapse rates, longer event-free survival, longer time to progression, and longer overall survival, particularly in patients without adverse prognostic parameters. A combination of dose-dense, dose-intense regimens plus rituximab is currently being tested for poor-risk patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. However, much work has to be done for patients with high-risk lymphoma. It may come with a better definition of genetic abnormalities specifically associated with refractoriness to chemotherapy.