It was found that the combination of rituximab and anti-CD47 monoclonal antibody achieved a high remission rate in the treatment of lymphoma

Recently, a new study released by NEJM found that the combination of rituximab and anti-CD47 monoclonal antibody achieved a high remission rate in recurrent or refractory B-cell lymphoma The researchers reported the results of a phase 1 study In this study, 15 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and 7 patients with recurrent or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) were treated with 5f9 monoclonal antibody targeting CD47, which is a "don't eat me" signal expressed by some lymphomas and can prevent being ingested by megaphagocytes The patients were treated with a small dose of 5f9 (1mg / kg) in the first week, followed by 5f9 (10-30mg / kg) + rituximab in each week All patients had received a lot of treatment before, 95% of them were refractory to rituximab In patients with DLBCL, 40% were relieved and 33% were completely relieved In FL patients, 71% were relieved and 43% were completely relieved In the median follow-up period of 6-8 months, 91% of the remission was still in progress Most of the toxicity was grade 1 or 2, including hemolytic anemia (an expected effect due to the expression of CD47 on aging and aging red blood cells) For most patients, the first week of low-dose 5f9 treatment effectively reduced the risk of hemolysis The authors then selected 30 mg / kg as the treatment dose for the phase II study This new mechanism of phagocytosis of lymphoma cells mediated by rituximab is very encouraging Further development of this strategy will be of great significance, making it possible to use it in less difficult to treat diseases, or to enhance remission after induction therapy It is worth noting that acquired CD47 expression has also been observed in some solid tumors, including colorectal cancer, and clinical trials are underway to combine anti-tumor monoclonal antibodies with anti-CD47 targeted therapy (http://