Combination chemotherapy with rituximab (Rituxan), known as R-CHOP, has been the standard of practice for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma for many years and is commonly used in many patients, explains Laura Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN. However, patients who do not respond to this chemoimmunotherapy treatment may progress to CAR T-cell therapy and other options in the second-line and beyond setting, such as loncastuximab tesirine (Zynlonta).

Zitella, a nurse practitioner at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and associate clinical professor at UCSF school of nursing, also recently presented at PER®s Onco-Nurse Academy about safely administering Integrating Novel Therapies Across the DLBCL Care Spectrum.

®, Zitella highlights what treatment options exist for patients whose disease progresses beyond CAR T-cell therapy options, and the important considerations nurses should keep in mind with the available third-line agents.

Videos

Laura Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN, discusses third-line treatment options for patients with diffuse large b-cell lymphoma.

Laura Zitella on Third-Line Treatment Considerations in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

At the 3rd annual School of Nursing Oncology, Oncology Nursing News&#61650; had the chance to sit down and discuss with Laura J. Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN, associate clinical professor at the University of California San Francisco, about how cancer care for patients with hematologic malignancies has moved beyond just traditional chemotherapy.

While chemotherapy is still important in the treatment of malignancies, many of the novel therapies that we've seen over the last 5 years have all been targeted agents that either exploit signal transduction pathways, target actionable mutations or target different receptors and cells in the immune system. All of that changed, I believe, because we were able to better characterize the etiology of malignancies and what factors make cancer cells different from healthy cells. Being able to target those factors unique to cancer cells helps us deliver effective therapies because they don't cause as many side effects because they don't damage healthy cells.   

Treating patients with hematological malignancies has moved beyond just using chemotherapy. And to discuss this change we sat down with Laura J. Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN, associate clinical professor at the University of California San Francisco, at the 3rd annual School of Nursing Oncology.   

Laura J. Zitella, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, AOCN

Articles

Laura Zitella on Third-Line Treatment Considerations in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Treating Malignancies with More Than Just Chemotherapy