What Is Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)?
What Is Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL)? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
What is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) exactly? Dr. Jean Koff shares information about this specific type of lymphoma and explains why subtypes of DLBCL are important in determining optimal therapy.
Dr. Jean Koff is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. Learn more about Dr. Koff, here.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
Hello, I’m Katherine Banwell, your host for today’s program. Joining me is Dr. Jean Koff. Dr. Koff, would you introduce yourself?
Dr. Koff:
Hi, I’m Dr. Jean Koff. I’m a lymphoma specialist and clinical researcher at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
Katherine Banwell:
Great. Thank you for joining us. Well, let’s start with a definition. What is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma?
Dr. Koff:
So, we may want to back up and actually define what lymphoma is, because that may be unfamiliar to patients who are just getting a new diagnosis. So, lymphoma is a pretty general term, but it refers to a cancer that arises from white blood cells called lymphocytes. And normally these lymphocytes are part of your immune system. Normally they help to fight infections and even tumors. But sometimes in some patients often for reasons we don’t fully understand these lymphocytes, these white blood cells, part of your normal immune system can grow out of control to the point that they become a cancer. And when they do that, that’s called a lymphoma.
So, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or DLBCL, is the most common, aggressive form of lymphoma. And we call it aggressive because it tends to grow quickly, and it tends to cause problems quickly.
Katherine Banwell:
Are there subtypes?
Dr. Koff:
There are and there are several different ways that you can subdivide DLBCL. One of the most common ways that DLBCL researchers and clinicians think about it is breaking it up into ABC and GCB subtypes. And what these subtypes are, are reflections of how the tumor expresses different genes and that makes it potentially susceptible to different types of therapy. Although we’re still trying to figure out the best way to target these different subtypes. You can also divide DLBCL up by other genes that it may express.
Patients may be familiar with the term double hit lymphoma that refers to a large cell lymphoma that has re-arrangements of certain genes, mainly MYC and either BCL-2 or BCL-6.
And then, there are other definitions that we can apply to DLBCL based on where the lymphoma arises. So, as you can see, there are lots of nuances into subdividing, this disease. There are lots of different varieties, and there are lots of subtleties. But one of the main breakdowns is between ABC and GCB.
