Inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and study summary
Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare type of brain tumour. It is an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that is found only in the brain or spinal cord. PCNSL is often treated with high-doses of chemotherapy. The first treatment doesn’t work for some patients (called ‘refractory’), and the lymphoma can come back (called ‘relapse’). Refractory or relapsed (RR) PCNSL is much more difficult to treat. There is currently no standard treatment for RR-PCNSL and further chemotherapy treatment is often unsuccessful. Radiation treatment to the brain can sometimes be used but can cause significant long-term side-effects. Clinical trials are now focused on testing new drugs that are better at targeting the tumour, and are likely to have fewer side-effects. The treatment being tested in the PRiZM+ trial is a drug called zanubrutinib. Zanubrutinib is a new type of drug (a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor), which works by targeting lymphoma cells. Previous studies have shown that similar drugs can cause RR-PCNSL to shrink or disappear. It is thought that zanubrutinib could be a more effective treatment, which can be given safely without too many side effects. The aim of the study is to find out how effective and safe zanubrutinib is for patients with RR-PCNSL. We will be looking at the effects zanubrutinib has against lymphoma, how long these effects last, and what the side-effects of the drug are.