Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma – a road to personal therapy

The majority of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma can be cured using the standard rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone (R-CHOP) based therapy. However, approximately 30–40% of the patients are refractory to the therapy or they relapse. The currently available salvage therapies represent a realistic curative approach only for approximately one quarter of the patients. Therefore, there is unmet clinical need for more effi cient fi rst line and salvage therapies in DLBCL. The rapid advances in the fi eld of molecular genetic techniques lead to a better understanding of the biological heterogeneity as well as the discovery of the key factors involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Nowadays, the distinction between the cases with germinal center B-cell and activated B-cell origin characterized with different prognosis has therapeutic implications. Presently, the therapy of the so-called double-hit lymphomas also represents an unmet clinical need. The next generation sequencing based studies lead to the discovery of novel molecular targets, including components of different cellular signaling pathways, immune checkpoints and components of the microenvironment. Targeted therapies against many of these molecular targets are being tested in different clinical trials. Due the heterogeneity of the disease, it is of critical importance to identify those patient groups who will benefi t from a particular targeted therapy. Hopefully, this risk-adopted therapeutic approach will become soon available for patients with DLBCL. Currently, the R-CHOP therapy still represents the gold standard in treatment of patients with DLBCL.