Background
lymphoproliferative malignancies, aggressive lymphomas, cancer, type of leukaemia, DLBCL, neurotoxicity, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, ALL, NHLs, NHL
RARE DISEASE, CANCER, DISEASE, ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKAEMIA, LEUKAEMIA, CYTOKINE RELEASE SYNDROME, NHL, DIFFUSE LARGE B-CELL LYMPHOMA
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) comprises a large group of lymphoproliferative malignancies that originate either from malignant B or T lymphocytes. NHL was the seventh most common cancer diagnosis in the USA in 2020 and the most common aggressive subtype is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), which accounts for approximately 25–45% of all NHL cases worldwide [While patients with indolent NHLs have relatively good prognoses with long median survival rates, even in cases of relapsed disease, for patients with aggressive lymphomas, who relapse or are refractory to first-line treatment, the prognosis is poor, despite multiple treatment options [Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is an aggressive type of leukaemia characterised by an overproduction of lymphoblasts in the bone marrow and the peripheral blood. It can spread to the lymph nodes, spleen, liver and central nervous system and if untreated can be rapidly fatal. ALL occurs in both adults and children; in adults, it is a rare disease (7–8% of all types of leukaemia), with 5-year survival rates of 31.4% in those aged 40–64 years and 19.8% in those aged 65–74 years [In a phase 3 clinical trial in R/R disease, blinatumomab was significantly more effective than standard salvage chemotherapy; however, neurotoxicity and cytokine release syndrome were frequent side effects [AFM11 is a tetravalent, bispecific humanised recombinant antibody construct (TandAb®) developed for the treatment of CD19-positive NHL and ALL [Here, we present data from two discontinued phase 1 studies that evaluated the safety, pharmacokinetics (PK) and activity of AFM11 in patients with R/R CD19-positive B cell NHL (AFM11-101 [NCT02106091]) and in patients with CD19 + B-precursor Philadelphia-chromosome negative ALL (AFM11-102 [NCT02848911]).