Biology of Hodgkin lymphoma in older patients project
An SWG Grant-supported project initiated by the EHA SWG on Ageing in Hematology.
Full project title
‘Unraveling the Biological Landscape of Hodgkin Lymphoma in Older Patients.’
Project lead
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Paul J. Bröckelmann, MD
Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG), Cologne
Germany
Project background and aims
We aim to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive characterization of Hodgkin lymphoma biology in older patients. The overarching goal is to unravel targetable vulnerabilities and inform novel therapeutic strategies in this growing patient population.
Outcomes in older patients with classic Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) remain poor and 80% of all HL-associated deaths occur in patients ≥55 years of age. The bimodal age distribution of HL suggests differences in lymphomagenesis and biology, which remain poorly understood. Recent studies on ctDNA showed increased EBV-driven NFkB activation, genetic instability including KMT2D mutations, CDKN2A loss, PD-L1 amplification and resulting T-cell exhaustion signatures. Analyses on tumor biopsies, which are crucial to uncover targetable dependencies remain, however, scarce.
We aim to comprise a clinically well-annotated European cohort of primary tumor biopsies of approximately 150 older HL patients. With the support of the EHA SWG seeding grant, we will pursue the following specific aims:
- Establish a framework to centrally collect primary HL biopsy tissue blocks and the corresponding pseudonymized clinical data from multiple European countries
- Undertake a central evaluation of all samples for the intended multimodal analyses by assessing tissue size and quality as well as verifying HL infiltrate and identifying regions of interest (ROIs)
- Prepare samples for intended down-stream analyses by isolation of RNA/DNA and generation of tissue-micro-arrays from representative ROIs
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