We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App




Blood Test Predicts Lymphoma Therapy Success

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 04 Sep 2018
Print article
Image: Bone marrow aspirate from a patient with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (Photo courtesy of Peter Maslak).
Image: Bone marrow aspirate from a patient with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (Photo courtesy of Peter Maslak).
A blood test can predict which patients with a type of cancer called diffuse large B cell lymphoma are likely to respond positively to initial therapy and which are likely to need more aggressive treatment.

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a blood cancer, is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and because it is highly biologically variable, patients vary widely in their response to treatment. Although most people are cured by conventional therapy, about one-third are not. Being able to predict early in the course of treatment those who will need additional or more aggressive therapies would be a significant boon to both clinicians and patients.

A large team of scientists led by Stanford Medicine (Stanford, CA, USA) tracked circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) levels in 217 people with diffuse large B cell lymphoma that were treated at six medical centers, three in the USA and three in Europe. For each patient, they compared levels of ctDNA before treatment began with the levels after the first and second rounds of conventional chemotherapy. They then correlated those changes with each patient's outcome.

The scientists found that ctDNA was detectable prior to the initiation of therapy in 98% of the people studied, and, as would be expected, the amount of ctDNA in the blood dropped in all patients once treatment began. However the precipitousness of the decline varied. Those people whose ctDNA levels dropped a hundredfold after the first round or three-hundredfold by the second round were much more likely to live 24 months or more without experiencing a recurrence of their disease than those whose ctDNA levels declined more slowly.

David M. Kurtz, MD, PhD, the lead author of the study, said, “We found that ctDNA levels serve as a very sensitive and specific biomarker of response to therapy within as few as 21 days. Every year, about 30,000 people in the USA are diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma and, for the most part, they're treated with six cycles of combination therapy. But we know that not all patients need six cycles. A large fraction could be cured with fewer cycles, maybe even just two. If we can identify those people who are responding extremely well, we could spare them additional treatments. Conversely, we could intensify the therapy or seek other options for those who are not responding as well as we would have hoped.” The study was published on August 20, 2018, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Related Links:
Stanford Medicine

Gold Member
Fully Automated Cell Density/Viability Analyzer
BioProfile FAST CDV
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Virus Test
Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Virus Detection Kit
New
Community-Acquired Pneumonia Test
RIDA UNITY CAP Bac

Print article

Channels

Molecular Diagnostics

view channel
Image: Researcher Kanta Horie places a sample in a mass spectrometer that measures protein levels in blood plasma and other fluids (Photo courtesy of WashU Medicine)

Highly Accurate Blood Test Diagnoses Alzheimer’s and Measures Dementia Progression

Several blood tests are currently available to assist doctors in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in individuals experiencing cognitive symptoms. However, these tests do not provide insights into the clinical... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The findings were based on patients from the ADAURA clinical trial of the targeted therapy osimertinib for patients with NSCLC with EGFR-activated mutations (Photo courtesy of YSM Multimedia Team)

Post-Treatment Blood Test Could Inform Future Cancer Therapy Decisions

In the ongoing advancement of personalized medicine, a new study has provided evidence supporting the use of a tool that detects cancer-derived molecules in the blood of lung cancer patients years after... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: Schematic representation illustrating the key findings of the study (Photo courtesy of UNIST)

Breakthrough Diagnostic Technology Identifies Bacterial Infections with Almost 100% Accuracy within Three Hours

Rapid and precise identification of pathogenic microbes in patient samples is essential for the effective treatment of acute infectious diseases, such as sepsis. The fluorescence in situ hybridization... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.