Immunotherapy drug improves outcomes in high-risk blood cancer
19 June 2025
A Peter Mac-initiated clinical trial suggests a way to dramatically improve outcomes in patients with high-risk forms of large B-cell lymphoma, who otherwise have a 50% chance of cure from conventional therapy.
Patients enrolled in the COALITION trial were all aged 18 to 65 years and showed clinical features, or had a genetic test result, indicating “high risk” their cancer would not respond to, or relapse after, standard therapies.
All patients received one of two standard treatment regimes, either “R-CHOP” or “Pola-R-CHP”. This Phase II trial assessed safety and efficacy of adding the drug glofitamab to each of these regimes.
“This trial involved a group of patients in whom poor outcomes are common with only half expected to be cured by conventional treatments,” says Dr Adrian Minson, a lymphoma specialist at Peter Mac who co-led the national trial together with Professor Michael Dickinson, the Lead of Aggressive Lymphoma.
“However, when glofitamab was added to these commonly used R-CHOP and Pola-R-CHP treatment regimes, we saw potent and durable responses in almost all patients.”
Of the 80 patients in the trial, over 95% completed the therapy (either R-CHOP or Pola-R-CHP plus glofitamab). Among these, 98% had a “complete response” meaning their blood cancer became undetectable on the most sensitive of scans.
There were no major new toxicities observed and side effects were considered manageable. At follow-up almost two years later (median follow-up 21 months), profession-free and overall survival rates were 86% and 92% respectively.
Professor Dickinson says: “These results are exciting and support an ongoing larger Phase III clinical trial to assess glofitamab as a first-line treatment, in combination with other therapies, for high-risk forms of large B-cell lymphoma.”
These results have just been published in the world’s peak cancer journal, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, in a paper titled “Glofitamab combined with Pola-R-CHP or R-CHOP as first therapy in younger patients with high-risk Large B Cell Lymphoma: Results from the COALITION study”. Read the paper online here.
The COALITION trial was investigator-initiated by Professor Dickinson and Dr Minson, sponsored by Peter Mac, and involved patients at Peter Mac and 14 other Australian sites.
Glofitamab is a type of antibody treatment which helps the immune system attack lymphoma cells, and a benefit of this type of drug is that it can be used alongside, and potentially improve outcomes of, chemotherapy-based treatments.
R-CHOP is a common chemotherapy-based treatment that includes five drugs: rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone. Pola-R-CHP is similar but swaps vincristine for polatuzumab vedotin.
< ends >
Contacts:
For more information contact the Peter Mac Communications team on 0417 123 048.
About Peter Mac
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.