NCCN Guidelines adds ofatumumab and romidepsin as therapy options for CLL

Following the FDA approvals of two new therapies for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas (NHL), the NCCN Guidelines for NHL have been updated to include ofatumumab (Azerra(TM), GlaxoSmithKline) as a therapy option for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and romidepsin (Istodax(R), Gloucester Pharmaceuticals) as a suggested treatment for patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL).

Two recent FDA approvals have prompted the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to update the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas to include ofatumumab (Azerra(TM), GlaxoSmithKline) and romidepsin (Istodax(R), Gloucester Pharmaceuticals) as treatment options for select patients with two types of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas.

Ofatumumab was added to the NCCN Guidelines as a treatment option for relapsed/refractory disease in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), with and without a 17p deletion. A 17p deletion refers to a chromosomal abnormality involving deletion of genetic material from chromosome 17. Ofatumumab was approved by the FDA on October 27, 2009 for patients with CLL, a slowly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, whose cancer is no longer responding to other chemoimmunotherapy regimens.

In addition, the updated NCCN Guidelines now include romidepsin as a suggested systemic treatment option for patients with mycosis fungoides and Sezary syndrome, two of the most common types of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). On November 6, 2009, the FDA approved romidepsin, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, for the treatment of CTCL in patients who have received at least one prior systemic therapy.

These latest additions come shortly after another recent update to the NCCN Guidelines for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas that incorporated the FDA approval of pralatrexate (Folotyn(TM), Allos Therapeutics, Inc.) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL).

The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology(TM) are developed and updated through an evidence-based process with explicit review of the scientific evidence integrated with expert judgment by multidisciplinary panels of physicians from NCCN Member Institutions. The most recent version of this and all the NCCN Guidelines are available free of charge at NCCN.org.