Real-World Use of Tafasitamab (tafa) for Relapsed or Refractory (R/R) Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) Among Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the United States

Introduction: Tafa, a CD19-targeting immunotherapy, received accelerated approval by the FDA in combination with lenalidomide (len) for the treatment of patients with R/R DLBCL ineligible for autologous stem cell transplantation. In a recent real-world study (RWS) of tafa for R/R DLBCL, nearly one-third of patients were from typically underrepresented racial groups (abstract submitted to ASH 2023). Research has shown that patient characteristics, risk factors, and outcomes for DLBCL can differ by race and ethnicity (Li Y, et al. Cancer Epidemiol. 2015;39:8-13; Ermann D et al. J Clin Oncol. 2022;40(suppl):7507). The purpose of this analysis is to understand the patient characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes observed in the tafa RWS by race and ethnicity. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study in which participating physicians from Cardinal Health's Oncology Provider Extended Network abstracted data from eligible patients' medical records into electronic case report forms. Eligible patients were ≥18 years of age who initiated tafa for R/R DLBCL on or after Oct 21, 2020. Included patients had ≥4 months of follow-up unless the patient died during this period. Use of tafa in combination with len was not a requirement for study eligibility. Patients who received tafa as part of a clinical trial were excluded. Results were summarized by race (White, Black/African American, “Other”) and ethnicity (Non-Hispanic, Hispanic) using descriptive statistics. The “Other” racial category included patients with mixed race or a race other than White, Black/African American, or Unknown. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to measure time to tafa discontinuation. Due to limited follow-up and small sample size, effectiveness outcomes for subgroups smaller than 20 patients are not presented. Results: A total of 181 patients who initiated tafa for R/R DLBCL were included in this analysis. Table 1 shows patient characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes by racial and ethnic groups. The racial composition of the study population was 64% White, 22% Black/African American, 8% “Other,” and 6% Unknown (Unknown not displayed in Table), and ethnic composition was 82% non-Hispanic, 17% Hispanic, and 1% Unknown (Unknown not displayed in Table). Most physicians who participated in this study were from community oncology practices (83%). The median follow-up time from tafa initiation to data collection among all patients was 6.5 (interquartile range [IQR], 5.0-8.6) mont