Avelumab in Relapsed or Refractory Extranodal Natural Killer/T-cell Lymphoma[AVENT STUDY]

Extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL) generally has poorer prognosis than other lymphomas because the majority of patients are present as advanced disease and show poor response to treatment. In particular, treatment of relapsed or refractory stage ENKTL is very poor and there is no standard treatment. ENKTL is entirely infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and the prevalence of this disease is closely related to EBV. Therefore, the biological properties of ENKTL may be affected by EBV-related protein and LMP1 may induce activation of molecules in various sub-channels, such as PI3K/Akt and NF-kB, and affect the aggressiveness of lymphoma. As an increase in PDL1 has been reported recently among the major roles of LMP1, the role of Immuno-oncology drug targeting PDL1 among ENKTL is expected. Therefore, Avelumab that inhibits PDL1 may effectively treat NK/T-cell lymphoma besides relapsed or refractory stage lymphoma.