By the end of this year, approximately 31,000 people across the country will have been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) in the United States.1 2 Since 2006, there has been limited therapeutic progress made in individuals with previously untreated DLBCL.

Many people with DLBCL respond to initial treatment, but about four in 10 people will see their cancer either relapse, usually within two years, or not respond to initial treatment at all.3 The best chance of preventing relapse in people with DLBCL is to begin treating them with effective and tolerable therapy at the time they are diagnosed, as subsequent therapies expose them to additional side effects.4

This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a therapy as a first treatment for adults with certain types of previously untreated DLBCL. This represents an important milestone that may improve outcomes for patients newly diagnosed with this fast-growing blood cancer and reduce some of the burdens associated with disease progression – both for patients and for the U.S. healthcare system.

On Thursday, November 16, Mark Fesler, M.D., a hematologist at St. Luke’s Center for Cancer Care, will discuss common symptoms and treatment options for newly diagnosed DLBCL and share what this FDA approval has meant for his patients and what it could mean for others facing this aggressive blood cancer.