Laurie Sehn, MD

“We don’t think a lot about cutaneous T-cell lymphoma because it is one of the rare forms of lymphoma that we treat, but it is an extremely debilitating type of lymphoma,” said press briefing moderator Laurie Sehn, MD, Chair of the Lymphoma Tumour Group of the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada. “Patients have lesions that are highly visible to themselves and others. They are highly symptomatic, and as time goes on, the disease progresses…. This is a very morbid condition. Doctors and patients are looking forward to more effective therapies like the one we saw in this study.”

Kenneth C. Anderson, MD

Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, highlighted this study in a press briefing. He noted that a previous phase I/II study from the Mayo Clinic showed a 37% response rate to mogamulizumab, which set the stage for the phase III trial reported at the 2017 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition comparing mogamulizumab with the standard treatment vorinostat.

“We are highlighting this study because of the large number of patients who had at least three prior therapies, in whom a novel therapy doubled the progression-free survival and improved response rates and quality of life,” he said. “This is extending a targeted therapy, a monoclonal antibody, to lymphomas in the T-cell area and is very promising.” ■

DISCLOSURE: Drs. Sehn and Anderson reported no conflicts of interest.