John W. Sweetenham, MD

Although ibrutinib-related atrial fibrillation (IRAF) occurs in up to 11% of patients in clinical trials, these studies have rarely fully characterized bleeding events or risk factors for bleeding when ibrutinib is combined with anticoagulation. Furthermore, guidelines do not provide direction regarding the preferred anti-arrhythmic agent for IRAF.

The message seems to be emerging that for some diseases, clinical monitoring for relapse and recurrence has a strong evidence base, is safe, and is associated with lower costs.

Lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL) is a rare disease, comprising about 2% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) in adults.[1] It is a highly aggressive subtype of lymphoma, most commonly of precursor T-cell origin, occurring most frequently in adolescents and young adults, with male predominance and frequent mediastinal, bone marrow, and central nervous system (CNS) involvement.

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is one of the most curable malignancies in adults. However, survival rates for elderly patients with HL (often defined as ≥ 60 years of age) are inferior to those achieved by younger populations.

The past 20 years have brought significant advances in our ability to manage patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. More precise classification systems, improvements in diagnosis and staging, and effective new treatments have improved outcomes and made cure a reasonable goal for many patients with these disorders.

We have seen major advancesin our understanding ofthe biology of malignantlymphoma in recent years. These advanceshave been reflected in thedevelopment of the Revised European-American (REAL)/World HealthOrganization (WHO) classificationof lymphoid malignancies, which incorporatesdata from immunophenotype,cytogenetic, and moleculargenetic studies as well as morphologicappearance and clinical behavior.The description of DNAmicroarray studies in diffuse largeB-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma(NHL) has already generated usefulprognostic data and identified manypotential therapeutic targets.[1] Futurestudies may provide pharmacogenomicdata, which could predictresponse to therapy in individual patients,and thus allow a more tailoredtreatment approach.