Advances and the current status in chemotherapy-free management for indolent lym-phomas / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Indolent B-cell lymphomas constitute a slow growing cancer of the lymphatic system. These lymphomas mainly include fol-licular lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, Waldenstom macroglobulinemia, marginal zone lym-phoma, and low malignant mantle cell lymphoma. These lymphomas are sensitive to chemotherapy and/or immunochemotherapy, but they cannot be cured. Furthermore, patient age at diagnosis, patient age at time of first onset or subsequent relapses, and compli-cations often influence the chemotherapy curative effect. At present, recent progress has been achieved in our understanding of dys-regulated pathways and immunologic anti-tumor responses in indolent lymphoma. In particular, the breakthrough of non-cytotoxic drugs renderschemo-freetreatment a near-future reality. In this review, we highlight these promising approaches, such as the com-bination of anti-CD20 antibodies with immunomodulatory drugs, mAbs directed against other surface antigens, and programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor inhibitor or B-cell receptor signaling pathway inhibitors. Future phase III studies will evaluate the efficacy of these drugs in the context of non-chemotherapy and further clarify treatment status.