Onkológia 3/2017

Follicular lymphoma: present and perspective in treatment

Outcomes in patientns with follicular lymphoma (FL) have improved dramatically over the last decade. However, novel agents and their combinations are greatly needed for relapsed and/or refractory disease, to minimize short- and lifelong toxicity after front-line treatment and to achieve the elusive goal of cure. Biological advances have led to the discovery of a large number of potential therapeutic targets which include tumor cell surface markers, key components of intracellular pathways, reactive cells of the microenvironment and epigenetic mechanisms. Given the large number of candidate drugs and potential combinations, it will be crucial to prioritize evaluation based on sound preclinical and clinical studies to exploit driver mechanisms within tumor cells and target parallel pathways to minimize the development of drug resistance and to identify higher risk patients and reliable predictive markers to select subgroups most likely to benefit from targeted agents. In this review, we evaluate the promise of targeted therapy for FL in light of the key clinical data, focusing on the exciting recent developments in target - based therapy for this disease. Methods: We selectively searched the PubMed database for pertinent articles and guidelines from the years 2005-2016. We used the search term „follicular lymphoma and treatment“.

Keywords: follicular lymphoma, monoclonal antibodies, tumor cell surface markers, intracellular pathways, epigenetic mechanisms, microenvironment