Dr. Leslie Discusses Duvelisib in Follicular Lymphoma

Lori A. Leslie, MD, lymphoma attending, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the role of duvelisib in the treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma.

PI3K is an important target in follicular lymphoma, and duvelisib has shown efficacy in the relapsed/refractory setting. However, it is not without toxicity, Leslie says. Duvelisib and some of the other targeted agents, though effective, have a similar toxicity profile. Some newer agents approved in the relapsed/refractory setting, like copanlisib (Aliqopa), have a similar efficacy without the added toxicity of some of the previous generation PI3K inhibitors.

Umbralisib (TGR-1202) is another efficacious and tolerable PI3K-delta inhibitor that likely will be approved for follicular lymphoma, Leslie explains. Developing better prognostic indices to predict poor outcomes to upfront chemoimmunotherapy will help physicians better use risk-adapted approaches to combine novel agents with standard-of-care backbones. Hopefully, the field will be able to move towards a chemotherapy-free approach, Leslie says.