At the 65^th Annual American Hematology Society (ASH) Meeting in San Diego, California, Narendranath Epperla, MD, MS, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, presented data from a retrospective cohort study analyzing the patient characteristics, treatment patterns, outcomes, and clinical benefits of tafasitamab across racial and ethnic groups among patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

It was noted by Epperla and coauthors that the diverse population of this trial was reflective of the heterogeneous patient population with R/R DLBCL treated primarily at community oncology centers in the United States, and that results supported the clinical benefit of tafasitmab across racial and ethnic groups.

Transcript:

Hello, everyone. I'm Naren Epperla from Ohio State University, and I am delighted to present our study at this ASH 2023 convention. This is a study looking at the outcomes of patients with relapsed/refractory DLBCL, who were treated with tafasitamab in [the] United States and looking at the outcomes based on race and ethnicity. As we all know, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma. There have been several agents that have been approved [for] the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. One of those agents is tafasitamab, in combination with lenalidomide. However, little is known, outside of clinical trials, how these patients do in [a] real-world setting. This project was undertaken to understand the outcomes of patients in [a] real-world setting, treated with tafasitamab, and also to look at the outcomes based on race and ethnicity. This is a multi-center chart review study, and patients [who were treated with tafasitamab] were included on or after October 2021.

We had a total of slightly over 180 patients in this study; 64% of the patients were White, 22% were Black, and the rest were other. For the ethnicity, 82% were non-Hispanic, 17% were Hispanic, and 1% for other. For the purpose of the analysis, we only analyzed based on whether [patients] were White or African American, given that, in the rest, there was a lot of heterogeneity and a lot of other races, so we wanted to keep the analysis clean. Similarly, for the ethnicity, we only analyzed between patients who were Hispanic and non-Hispanic. Most of the clinico-biological factors, baseline factors, I mean, were well balanced between the 2 groups, based on their race, as well as ethnicity. When we looked at the outcomes, it was very heartening to note that the overall response rate, as well as complete response rate, were comparable between the 2 races, that is, it was slightly over 70% in [patients who are] White, as well as [a] similar percentage in [patients who are] African American.

We saw a similar trend in the complete response rates as well. When we looked at the response rates based on the ethnicity, we noted the similar trend, wherein the overall response rates and complete response rates were comparable between the 2 ethnicities. One major limitation of the study is that the median duration of follow-up was only 6 and a half months. There is ongoing long-term follow-up, and the data is [still] being collected, so we want to see if this data would stand once we have a longer follow-up duration. In conclusion, we were very pleased to note that the outcomes for patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with tafasitamab were comparable across the different races and ethnicit[ies]. Thank you.

Source:

Epperla N, Nastoupil L, Zimmerman Savill K, et al. Real-world use of tafasitamab (tafa) for relapsed or refractory (R/R) diffuse large b-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) among racial and ethnic minorities in the united states. Presented at the 2023 ASH Annual Meeting: December 9-12, 2023. San Diego, CA. Abstract 2415