Randy D Gascoyne

BC Cancer Agency · Lymphoid Cancer Research

Introduction The prognostic value of B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) expression in de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with immunochemotherapy is of interest to define a target patient population for clinical development of BCL2 inhibitors. We aimed to develop a reproducible immunohistochemistry algorithm and assay to determine BCL2 prot...

When the WHO defined high-grade B-cell lymphoma with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements (HGBL-DH/TH) as a clinical category, rearrangements were the only structural variant (SV) incorporated. An "atypical double-hit" entity has been proposed, encompassing tumors with concurrent MYC and BCL2 SVs other than co-occurring translocations - i.e. cop...

Purpose: We sought to improve upon frontline bendamustine/rituximab (BR) induction therapy followed by rituximab maintenance in untreated high-risk follicular lymphoma (FL). Patients and methods: Patients were randomized to BR induction followed by 2-year rituximab maintenance (BR-R), BR with bortezomib and rituximab maintenance (BVR-R), or BR f...

Transmembrane protein 30A (TMEM30A) maintains the asymmetric distribution of phosphatidylserine, an integral component of the cell membrane and ‘eat-me’ signal recognized by macrophages. Integrative genomic and transcriptomic analysis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) from the British Columbia population-based registry uncovered recurrent bi...

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an uncommon B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that is incurable with standard therapies. The genetic drivers of this cancer have not been firmly established and the features that contribute to differences in clinical course remain limited. To extend our understanding of the biological pathways involved in this malignan...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the distribution and prognostic impact of a broad range of molecular attributes in a large cohort of immunocompetent patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) by using tissue microarray. Patients diagnosed with PCNSL were initially identified in the BC Cancer Lymphoid Cancer clinical a...

Background The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group evaluated rituximab treatment schedules for patients with newly-diagnosed low-tumor-burden follicular-lymphoma (FL). All patients received 4-weekly rituximab treatments as induction therapy. Clinically-responding patients were randomized to receive rituximab every 13 weeks (“maintenance”) vs. no addit...

Introduction: Central nervous system (CNS) relapse is a rare phenomenon in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), occurring in less than 5% of all patients, but is associated with disproportionate morbidity and mortality. Indeed, the median survival of patients diagnosed with CNS relapse is as low as 2-4 months. Individual risk factors for CNS rela...

Objectives Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an uncommon B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that is incurable with standard therapies. The genetic drivers of this cancer have not been firmly established and the features known to contribute to differences in clinical course remain limited. We sought to extend our understanding of the molecular etiology of this...

Background: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a highly heterogeneous neoplasm with 40% of patients experiencing treatment failure following immuno-chemotherapy (R-CHOP). Both cell-of-origin (COO) and presence of concurrent MYC/BCL2 rearrangements (DHIT) are significantly associated with distinct inferior outcome. Recently, next-generation se...

Introduction: The phase 3 international, randomized, double-blind ROBUST clinical trial (NCT02285062) compared progression-free survival between patients with previously untreated ABC-type DLBCL treated with placebo plus rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (placebo-R-CHOP) versus lenalidomide + R-CHOP (R2-CHOP) for...

Background: Standard first-line treatment for patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the R-CHOP regimen. Despite numerous efforts to improve on this regimen, in all comers and specifically in those with activated B-cell (ABC)-type DLBCL, results from large randomized studies have failed to show a significant clinical advan...

Introduction: The recently developed DLBCL90 NanoString assay robustly distinguishes primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) from diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), as well as cell-of-origin (COO) subtypes of DLBCL (ABC, GCB, unclassified) and cases with a Double-Hit (DHIT) signature (Ennishi D., JCO 2019). When this assay was applied...

The diagnosis of nodal marginal zone lymphoma (NMZL) can be challenging, with the differential diagnosis including other low-grade B-cell lymphomas, reactive hyperplasia, and even some cases of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). PTCL may have a perifollicular growth pattern mimicking NMZL. We and others have noted an atypical distribution of T-foll...

Diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common histologic subtype of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma and is notorious for its clinical heterogeneity. Patient outcomes can be predicted by cell‐of‐origin (COO) classification, demonstrating that the underlying transcriptional signature of malignant B‐cells informs biological behavior in the context of...

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is an aggressive, MYC-driven lymphoma comprising 3 distinct clinical subtypes: sporadic BLs that occur worldwide, endemic BLs that occur predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa, and immunodeficiency-associated BLs that occur primarily in the setting of HIV. In this study, we comprehensively delineated the genomic basis of BL throu...

Purpose: MYC rearrangement (MYC-R) occurs in approximately 10% of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) and has been associated with poor prognosis in many studies. The impact of MYC-R on prognosis may be influenced by the MYC partner gene (immunoglobulin [IG] or a non-IG gene). We evaluated a large cohort of patients through the Lunenburg Lymph...

Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) represents a clinically and pathologically distinct subtype of large B-cell lymphomas. Furthermore, molecular studies, including global gene expression profiling, have provided evidence that PMBL is more closely related to classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). Although targeted sequencing studies have re...

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an uncommon B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that is incurable with standard therapies. The genetic drivers of this cancer have not been firmly established and the features known to contribute to differences in clinical course remain limited. To extend our understanding of the biological pathways involved in this mali...

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common lymphoma subtype worldwide, accounting for 40% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas. DLBCL presents as an aggressive disease requiring immediate treatment. Although significant improvement in outcome has been achieved, ~40% of patients still experience treatment failure. Here, we characterized the re...

Aberrant activation of the JAK-STAT pathway is a hallmark of a variety of lymphomas and can alter the lymphoma cells secretome and the composition of the tumor microenvironment (TME). The up-regulation of the immune regulatory chemokine CCL17 has been shown to be mediated by STATs-dependent mechanism in primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL)....

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common lymphoma subtype worldwide, accounting for 40% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas. DLBCL presents as an aggressive disease requiring immediate treatment. Although significant improvement in outcome has been achieved, ~40% of patients still experience treatment failure. Here, we characterized the re...

The activated B cell (ABC-like) subtype of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is characterized by chronic activation of signaling initiated by immunoglobulin μ (IgM). By analyzing the DNA copy number profiles of 1000 DLBCL tumors, we identified gains of 18q21.2 as the most frequent genetic alteration in ABC-like DLBCL. Using integrative analysis...

6511 Background: Conventional adverse event (AE) analysis (ToxC) focuses on incidence of grade (gr) 3+ toxicities, and fails to capture AE time profile. Novel metrics that reflect chronic low gr and overall AE burden are needed. We applied the Toxicity over Time (ToxT) approach to ECOG-ACRIN 2408 to depict time-dependent toxicity of lenalidomide (L...

Background SLE is associated with increased risk of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). DLBCL is routinely classified by cell of origin (COO), with germinal centre B-cell (GCB) being more common and indicating better prognosis in the general population. We studied COO subtyping in patients with SLE diagnosed with DLBCL and their survival. Patie...

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is a group of complex clinicopathological entities, often associated with an aggressive clinical course. Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) and PTCL-not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS) are the 2 most frequent categories, accounting for >50% of PTCLs. Gene expression profiling (GEP) defined molecular signature...

We performed a genomic, transcriptomic, and immunophenotypic study of 347 patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) to uncover the molecular basis underlying acquired deficiency of MHC expression. Low MHC-II expression defines tumors originating from the centroblast-rich dark zone of the germinal center (GC) that was associated with infer...

Purpose: High-grade B-cell lymphoma with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements (HGBL-DH/TH) has a poor outcome after standard chemoimmunotherapy. We sought to understand the biologic underpinnings of HGBL-DH/TH with BCL2 rearrangements (HGBL-DH/TH- BCL2) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) morphology through examination of gene expression....

Introduction: Among the tumor immune escape mechanisms described to date, alterations in the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules play a crucial role in the development of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Although the frequency of loss of MHC expression differs between ABC- and GCB-DLBCL cell of origin (COO) subtypes...

Background: There remains a critical need to identify untreated HR FL patients (pts) who are at increased risk of early progression and death with conventional treatment. Data examining baseline PET has been reported to be prognostic in FL, however, there remains a paucity of data analyzing this in the context of bendamustine/rituximab (BR) inducti...

[§ share last authorship] Background: In 2000-2010, the first large prospective trials in peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) showed outcomes burdened by high failure rates during induction. Concurrently, trials with the anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab (ALZ) yielded promising responses in PTCL while demonstrating the feasibility of combinin...

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent, but incurable malignancy as most patients eventually experience progressive disease. We hypothesized that clonal heterogeneity and patient-specific immune responses would contribute to variable clinical outcomes and that understanding the complexity of the entire tumor "ecosystem" would allow us to better ma...

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with patient outcomes inferior to most other lymphoma subtypes. Recent progress in describing recurrent somatic gene mutations has led to a better understanding of MCL pathogenesis. However, the functional and clinical implications of many alterations remain to be elucidated....

Recognizing biological heterogeneity in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), significant effort has been made to define distinct molecular subgroups of prognostic importance which harbor potentially targetable biology. Reflecting this, in the recent revision of the WHO classification, DLBCL was divided into cell-of-origin molecular subtypes and a...

Background: The current standard of care in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) consists of chemotherapy and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies that have significantly improved patient outcomes over the past 15 years. However, a large proportion of patients suffer from refractory or relapsed disease. Therefore, the development of new therapeutic s...

The Janus kinase-signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK-STAT) pathway is an important and conserved pathway in lymphocytes which is activated by extracellular stimuli such as cytokines and growth factors. Aberrant activation of the JAK-STAT pathway is a hallmark of a variety of lymphomas which leads to increased proliferation/survi...

Background: Bortezomib has efficacy in follicular lymphoma (FL). Though generally well tolerated, it is associated with a few known toxicities, including neurotoxicity. As a chronically administered agent, it is important to investigate the tolerability of bortezomib over time as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapy. The current meth...

Genomic rearrangements in the MYC locus occur in ∼12% of lymphomas with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) morphology and are associated with inferior outcome. Previous studies exploring MYC rearrangements have primarily used fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays to characterize break-apart status but have rarely examined breakpoint l...

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive cancer originating from mature B-cells. Prognosis is strongly associated with molecular subgroup, although the driver mutations that distinguish the two main subgroups remain poorly defined. Through an integrative analysis of whole genomes, exomes, and transcriptomes, we have uncovered genes an...

Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is recognized as a distinct entity in the World Health Organization classification. Currently, the diagnosis relies on consensus of histopathology, clinical variables, and presentation, giving rise to diagnostic inaccuracy in routine practice. Previous studies have demonstrated that PMBCL can be dis...

T-cell/histiocyte-rich large B-cell lymphoma is a rare aggressive lymphoma showing histopathological overlap with nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma. Despite differences in tumor microenvironment and clinical behavior, the tumor cells of both entities show remarkable similarities, suggesting that both lymphomas might represent a spectr...

The activated B-cell (ABC) subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is characterized by the chronic activation of signaling initiated by immunoglobulin-μ (IgM). By analyzing DNA copy profiles of 1,000 DLBCLs, we identified gains of 18q21.2 as the most frequent genetic alteration in ABC-like DLBCL. We show that these alterations target the T...

Key Points The mutational landscape of DTFL is highly related to nodal FL but harbors fewer multiple/biallelic mutations in KMT2D. The immune microenvironment of DTFL is distinct from nodal FL and characterized by a chronic inflammation gene signature.

B cell receptor (BCR) signaling has emerged as a therapeutic target in B cell lymphomas, but inhibiting this pathway in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has benefited only a subset of patients1. Gene expression profiling identified two major DLBCL subtypes, known as germinal center (GC) B cell-like (GCB) and activated B cell-like (ABC)2,3, wit...

Key Points A new molecular assay identifies conventional and leukemic nonnodal MCL with differing clinicobiological features. The integration of the novel assay with genetic alterations identifies subsets of MCL patients with different management and outcome.

Background Diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) are phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous. Gene-expression profiling has identified subgroups of DLBCL (activated B-cell–like [ABC], germinal-center B-cell–like [GCB], and unclassified) according to cell of origin that are associated with a differential response to chemotherapy and targeted...

BACKGROUND Diffuse large B cell lymphomas (DLBCL) are phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous. Gene expression profiling identified subgroups of DLBCL (activated B-cell [ABC], germinal center B-cell [GCB], and Unclassified) based on cell-of-origin that are associated with differential response to chemotherapy and targeted agents. We sought to...

ECOG/ACRIN 1412 (E1412) is a randomized, phase II open-label study of lenalidomide/RCHOP vs. RCHOP alone in adults with newly diagnosed de novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and requires NanoString gene expression profiling (GEP) for cell-of-origin testing. Because of high ineligibility rate on retrospective expert central pathology review...

Key Points HGBL-DH/TH makes up 8% of de novo DLBCL, with HGBL-DH/TH with BCL2 rearrangement being a GCB phenomenon. Restricting FISH testing to tumors with dual protein expression and GCB subtype results in testing <15% of tumors, but missing ∼35% of HGBL-DH/TH.

Key Points Somatic IL4R mutations were identified in 24% of primary PMBCL cases (n = 62) and in 100% of PMBCL-derived cell lines. IL4R mutations lead to hyperphosphorylation of STAT proteins activating downstream immunoregulatory genes (CD23, CCL17).

Targeted next-generation sequencing panels are increasingly used to assess the value of gene mutations for clinical diagnostic purposes. For assay development, amplicon-based methods have been preferentially used on the basis of short preparation time and small DNA input amounts. However, capture sequencing has emerged as an alternative approach be...

Epigenetic heterogeneity is emerging as a feature of tumors. In diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), increased cytosine methylation heterogeneity is associated with poor clinical outcome, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA), an enzyme that mediates affinity maturation and facilitates DNA dem...

Key Points Accurate GZL diagnosis remains challenging, with >60% of patients with presumed GZL having the diagnosis reclassified on consensus review. Treatment with DLBCL-based therapy appears most effective for GZL (including R-CHOP); however, new therapies are needed to improve outcomes.