Hi, I'm Dr. Jason Weston from Emde Anderson Cancer Center, and we're here at the ASH 2025 meeting in Orlando, Florida, where we've been pleased to present the primary analysis of the SMART STOP trial. SMART STOP was a frontline study for patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, evaluating the potential to see if some patients may not need chemotherapy. For nearly 50 years, we've given chemotherapy as part of the backbone, and thankfully it's cured a lot of patients, but it's pretty old therapy and it doesn't cure everybody. About two out of three patients are cured with chemotherapy. We have so many new, incredible agents, we thought, could we explore the possibility of combining new agents with new agents and seeing if that could perhaps give people a good response without chemotherapy. In this trial, we combined the drugs tafacetamab, lenalidomide, acalabrutinib, and rituximab for four cycles. If patients achieved a complete response to that targeted therapy lead-in, they would go on to get less or no chemotherapy. And what we showed was very promising outcomes, very high response rates for the patients who got no chemo, very high response rates for patients who ultimately went on to get chemotherapy. We think this is a proof of concept that more clinical trials are needed evaluating the potential for chemotherapy-light or chemotherapy-free regimens in large B-cell lymphoma. Although this is not ready to change practice for patients tomorrow, it does show a hope for the future where we can use our best weapons up front and saving chemotherapy for those patients who are in the most need. If our videos have helped you in any way and you are able to, please consider making a donation to help us continue this important work. Your gift will go three times as far when we reach $500,000 by the end of the year. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference, and we're deeply grateful for your support.
HealthTree • December 24, 2025