Follicular lymphoma: the diminishing role of chemotherapy

Abstract

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is the most common indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma, accounting for 70% of cases in Western countries. Despite this unique name, FL is an extremely heterogeneous disease, both clinically and biologically. The basis of FL heterogeneity lies in the different biological pathways which can be activated, because of the variety of gene mutations that can occur. Today, there is a growing interest in the knowledge of these activated pathways, which is also testified by the presence of a new model that incorporates FL mutations to define patient’s prognosis (m7-FLIPI). These evaluations are also appealing because of the recent possibility of using “targeted therapies”. Targeted therapies are new tools, currently applicable in the setting of relapse/refractory (R/R) disease, where we can find a great variety of “chemo-free” combinations. As in other hematologic malignancies, “cellular therapy” enriches FL drug scenario, including T-cell dependent bispecific antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell. Since FL heterogeneity is the basis of the difference in therapeutic efficacy and disease course among patients, the hope for the future is to understand FL biology more deeply, to better comprehend how to obtain more representative samples and pre-treatment prognostic information in order to individualize the treatment strategy as early as frontline therapy