Pembrolizumab with Rituximab in Relapsed/Refractory Follicular Lymphoma and Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma

Background: The tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a role in follicular lymphoma (FL) pathogenesis and survival. PD-1/PDL-1 inhibitors have been effective in non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes, such as primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, and pembrolizumab + rituximab (P-R) produced a complete response (CR) in 50% of patients with rituximab-sensitive, relapsed/refractory (R/R) FL (Nastoupil ASH 2017, Blood Adv 2022). In 2018, we conducted a phase 2 study to assess the efficacy and safety of P-R in R/R FL and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) including rituximab-resistant patients.