TY - JOUR
T1 - From drug discovery to biomarker-driven clinical trials in lymphoma
AU - Younes, Anas
AU - Berry, Donald A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is partially supported by NCI lymphoma SPORE grant 1P50CA136411-01A1, Robert and Vicki Smith Fund, Prince Fund for lymphoma research, and the Young Texans Against Cancer Fund.
PY - 2012/11
Y1 - 2012/11
N2 - Over the past three decades, the pathological classification of lymphoma has substantially improved. The early Rappaport classification included a handful of subtypes that did not reflect the cell of origin and, not surprisingly, resulted in diagnostic inaccuracies. The WHO currently classifies lymphoma into 30 major distinctive types. While this classification improved the accuracy and consistency of the histological diagnosis of lymphoma, it had little impact on advancing drug development or improving the cure rate of this disease. One reason for this lack of improvement is that recent developments in cancer genomics show these histopathological subtypes to be heterogeneous. Basing treatment decisions on histopathological subtypes is inefficient as it groups different underlying molecular characteristics into one category. Such a strategy exposes many patients to potentially toxic drugs without providing benefits. The recent approval of two new cancer drugs with companion diagnostics to allow selection and treatment of patients with melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer has raised hope that a similar approach may also expedite successful drug development in lymphoma. We review the current status of biomarker development in lymphoma, and discuss novel biomarker-directed clinical trial designs for lymphoma.
AB - Over the past three decades, the pathological classification of lymphoma has substantially improved. The early Rappaport classification included a handful of subtypes that did not reflect the cell of origin and, not surprisingly, resulted in diagnostic inaccuracies. The WHO currently classifies lymphoma into 30 major distinctive types. While this classification improved the accuracy and consistency of the histological diagnosis of lymphoma, it had little impact on advancing drug development or improving the cure rate of this disease. One reason for this lack of improvement is that recent developments in cancer genomics show these histopathological subtypes to be heterogeneous. Basing treatment decisions on histopathological subtypes is inefficient as it groups different underlying molecular characteristics into one category. Such a strategy exposes many patients to potentially toxic drugs without providing benefits. The recent approval of two new cancer drugs with companion diagnostics to allow selection and treatment of patients with melanoma and non-small-cell lung cancer has raised hope that a similar approach may also expedite successful drug development in lymphoma. We review the current status of biomarker development in lymphoma, and discuss novel biomarker-directed clinical trial designs for lymphoma.
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U2 - 10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.156
DO - 10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.156
M3 - Review article
C2 - 22965151
AN - SCOPUS:84868201754
SN - 1759-4774
VL - 9
SP - 643
EP - 653
JO - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
JF - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
IS - 11
ER -