This Week in Oncology: Lymphoma Responses and Breast Cancer Survival

This week's research highlights offer insights into treatment responses for relapsed lymphoma and survival benefits in breast cancer. From the New England Journal of Medicine, a trial reported on experimental agents showing response rates up to 70% in adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma ^[1].

The systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated these agents alone or combined with CD20-antibodies, suggesting that cellular therapies may be considered for high response rates in this specific patient population.

Meanwhile, attention turned to solid tumours treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. A Lancet meta-analysis examined 5278 patients to evaluate how high tumour mutation burden affects overall survival ^[2].

The findings suggest that while a high TMB improves overall survival in ICI-treated solid tumours, the associations vary by cancer type and treatment approach. Elsewhere this week, researchers looked at advanced hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. In The Lancet. Oncology, a meta-analysis of 11 phase 3 trials involving 6035 patients demonstrated that CDK4/6 inhibitors combined with endocrine therapy significantly improve survival ^[3].

The authors describe this combination as a significant improvement for advanced HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.

We also saw research in Cancer medicine regarding hepatocellular carcinoma. A separate study in this journal evaluated preoperative indicators including alpha-fetoprotein, tumor size, and tumor margin to predict microvascular invasion ^[4].

The analysis suggests clinicians should consider these preoperative indicators to predict microvascular invasion risk in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Finally, a study in the Journal of geriatric oncology examined the relationship between frailty and depression in adults with cancer ^[5].

This meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies found a significant association between frailty and depressive symptoms, indicating that frailty is associated with increased prevalence of depressive symptoms in this demographic.