Transformed Waldenström Macroglobulinemia Responsive to Tafasitamab Plus Lenalidomide: A Case Report

The histologic transformation (HT) of Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) into diffuse large-cell lymphoma is an uncommon but poor-prognostic event for which there is no standard therapy. Knowledge of this entity is mainly derived from largely retrospective studies, which report abysmal average survi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCurēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 14; no. 12; p. e32403
Main Authors Nasir, Syed Alishan, Pandya, Deep, Wojkiewicz, Steven, Khandpur, Bhavna, Downes, Elizabeth, Pathare, Pradip, Frank, Richard
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Cureus Inc 11.12.2022
Cureus
Subjects
Anemia
Bone marrow
Case reports
Chemotherapy
Cytogenetics
Cytotoxicity
Edema
Flow cytometry
Hematology
Hemoglobin
Immunotherapy
Lymphatic system
Lymphoma
Medical prognosis
Monoclonal antibodies
Mutation
Oncology
Patients
Remission (Medicine)
Targeted cancer therapy
Therapeutics
Tumor necrosis factor-TNF
diffuse large b cell lymphoma (dlbcl)
high grade lymphoma
histology transformation
waldenstrom macroglobinaemia
tafasitamab & lenalidomide
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The histologic transformation (HT) of Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) into diffuse large-cell lymphoma is an uncommon but poor-prognostic event for which there is no standard therapy. Knowledge of this entity is mainly derived from largely retrospective studies, which report abysmal average survival rates even with the utilization of first-line chemoimmunotherapy and especially in patients who meet the high-risk criteria based on prognostic indices used for WM. We present the case of a 75-year-old man with high-risk, transformed WM who was ineligible for standard chemoimmunotherapy (due to pancytopenia and multiple comorbidities) and was consequently treated with tafasitabmab, an anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody plus lenalidomide. Tafasitamab plus lenalidomide (TAF/LEN) is a recently approved therapy for relapsed or refractory de novo diffuse large-cell lymphoma (DLCL) but has not been previously studied in transformed low-grade lymphomas or WM. We show that TAF/LEN resulted in a complete and durable response of the DLCL by PET/CT and a complete bone marrow response of lymphoplasmacytoid cells, including the normalization of complex cytogenetic abnormalities. The extraordinary response of our patient to TAF/LEN suggests that this combination may be an effective and tolerable therapy for transformed WM as well as relapsed or refractory non-transformed WM. Clinical trials of TAF/LN for the treatment of Waldenström macroglobulinemia are recommended.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.32403