A Phase 2 interventional study of Daratumumab and Bortezomib in Plasmablastic Lymphoma, sponsored by Fondazione Italiana Linfomi - ETS. Recruiting at 18 sites in Italy. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-09.
Sponsored by Fondazione Italiana Linfomi - ETS · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
It is an open-label, multicenter, phase II, single arm trial to Evaluate Activity and Safety of Daratumumab in combination with Bortezomib and Dexamethasone in patients about 28 patients with Relapsed or Refractory Plasmablastic lymphoma.
This is an open-label, multicenter, phase II, single arm trial. Patients will be recruited over 18 months in 19 FIL centers and it is expected that a total of 28 patients will start treatment. Analysis of the primary endpoint of the study is planned approximately after 12 months from the enrollment of the last patient, regardless of the response to protocol treatment of this patient. The total duration of the study is 60 months (\~5 years).
Patients will be enrolled based on the local diagnosis and the local assessment of CD38 expression ≥ 5%. The screening phase of the study includes baseline assessments according to local practice and those required by the study.
Samples coming from the most recent biopsy, and if available also those used for the first diagnosis, are to be collected and sent afterwards, upon request of the FIL Offices, to one of the three FIL designed central laboratories. Central diagnosis review and CD38 assessment will be performed during or at the end of the study conductance; there's no need to wait for central results to start protocol treatment.
Protocol treatment consists of an induction phase planning one course (cycle 1) of daratumumab sc as single agent followed by 8 courses (cycles 2-9) of daratumumab sc in combination with bortezomib sc and dexamethasone (DVd regimen).
Patients achieving at least a SD after induction will be addressed to the maintenance phase, planning a maximum of 6 cycles (cycles 10-15) of daratumumab sc as single agent.
Induction cycles will be administered every 21 days, while maintenance cycles will be administered every 28 days.
Treatment with DVd or daratumumab single agent will be discontinued before completion of planned cycles in case of disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal of consent and/or the investigator determines that further therapy is not in the patient best interest (e.g., due to non-compliance, toxicity, etc.). Adverse events according to CTCAE will be monitored from the first dose of induction treatment, throughout maintenance phase and for 30 days after the last dose of protocol treatment with the study drug or 30 days after the last dose of drug in case of early discontinuation from any cause.
18 studies on the registry are indexed under Plasmablastic Lymphoma; 11 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 28 is close to the median of 28 across 16 interventional studies indexed under Plasmablastic Lymphoma.
Browse Plasmablastic Lymphoma studies →Fondazione Italiana Linfomi - ETS is the lead sponsor of 91 studies on the registry; 23 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Patients with plasmablastic lymphoma :
At least one lesion identifiable by imaging:
Women of (WOCBP) and men must agree to use effective if sexually active. This applies for the time period between signing of the form and 7 months (for women) o 4 months (for men) after last administration of bortezomib or 6 months after last daratumumab dose, regardless of sex. A woman is considered of childbearing potential, i.e., fertile, following menarche and until becoming unless permanently sterile. Permanent sterilization methods include but are not limited to hysterectomy, bilateral salpingectomy and bilateral oophorectomy. A postmenopausal state is defined as no menses for continuous 12 months without an alternative medical cause. A high follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) level in the postmenopausal range may be used to confirm a postmenopausal state in women not using hormonal contraception or hormonal replacement therapy. The investigator or a designated associate is requested to advise the patient how to achieve highly effective birth control method (failure rate of less than 1%) e.g., intrauterine device (IUD), intrauterine hormone-releasing system (IUS), bilateral tubal occlusion, vasectomized partner, and sexual abstinence. The use of condoms by male patients is required unless the female partner is permanently sterile.
WOCBP must have two negative pregnancy tests as verified by the study doctor prior to starting study therapy and must agree to undergo monthly pregnancy testing during the course of the study and after end of study therapy if clinically indicated. This applies even if the subject practices complete abstinence from heterosexual contact.
Exclusion Criteria:
Subject is:
Screening laboratory values (due to causes different than lymphoma):
Subject has cardiac disease, including:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.
The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Relapsed and refractory
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Allogeneic and autologous transplant
Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Measurable disease
The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.
The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
CTCAE grade
The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECG (electrocardiogram)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
QT and QTc
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Treatment consists of an induction phase (every 21 days) planning one course (cycle 1) of daratumumab as single agent followed by 8 courses (cycles 2-9) of daratumumab in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone (DVd regimen). Patients achieving at least a SD after induction will be addressed to the maintenance phase (every 28 days), planning a maximum of 6 cycles (cycles 10-15) of daratumumab as single agent until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal of consent and/or the investigator decision.
Drug: Daratumumab · Drug: Bortezomib · Drug: Dexamethasone
Induction phase planning one course (cycle 1) of daratumumab as single agent followed by 8 courses (cycles 2-9) of daratumumab in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone (DVd regimen). Patients achieving at least a SD after induction will be addressed to the maintenance phase, planning a maximum of 6 cycles (cycles 10-15) of daratumumab as single agent.
Also known as: Daratumumab sc
Induction phase planning one course (cycle 1) of daratumumab as single agent followed by 8 courses (cycles 2-9) of daratumumab in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone (DVd regimen). Patients achieving at least a SD after induction will be addressed to the maintenance phase, planning a maximum of 6 cycles (cycles 10-15) of daratumumab as single agent.
Also known as: Bortezomib sc
Induction phase planning one course (cycle 1) of daratumumab as single agent followed by 8 courses (cycles 2-9) of daratumumab in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone (DVd regimen). Patients achieving at least a SD after induction will be addressed to the maintenance phase, planning a maximum of 6 cycles (cycles 10-15) of daratumumab as single agent.
Also known as: Dexamethasone os
Overall response rate (ORR)
Response assessment will be done at each restaging. The best overall response will be defined as the best response between the date of beginning of therapy and the last response evaluation. Patients without response assessment (due to whatever reason) will be considered as non-responders.
Time frame: 30 months
Progression-free survival (PFS)
From the date of starting therapy and the date of disease progression, relapse or death from any cause. Responding patients according to the Lugano classification response Criteria and patients who are lost to follow-up will be censored at their last assessment date.
Time frame: 30 months
Overall survival (OS)
From the date of starting therapy and the date of death from any cause. Patients alive and those who are lost to follow-up at the time of the final analysis will be censored at the date of the last contact.
Time frame: 30 months
Duration of response (DOR)
For all patients who achieved a response (CR or PR) according to Response Criteria for NHL with PET (Lugano 2014) and it is measured from the date when criteria for response are met (CR or PR) until the date of progression (including death due to progression) or relapse. Patients without relapse or progression or with death from other cause than progression will be censored at their last assessment date.
Time frame: 30 months
Number of participants with treatment-related adverse events as assessed by current version of CTCAE.
The safety of daratumumab as single agent and in combination with bortezomib/dexamethasone will be assessed in all patients who have received at least one dose of study medication. Rates of adverse events and of serious adverse events will be will be presented with two sided 95% confidence intervals.
Time frame: 30 months
Rate of Complete Remission (CRR)
Comparison of ORR and CRR before and after maintenance, and by evaluation of rate of conversion of SD to PR and of SD/PR to CR with daratumumab maintenance.
Time frame: 30 months
Relationship between CD38 expression on lymphoma cells, assessed by immunohistochemistry, and the response rate.
The extent of CD38 expression evaluated by immunochemistry on the diagnostic biopsy-tissue will be correlated with response measured according to the Lugano 2014 criteria at various timepoints: after induction cycle 1, after induction cycles 3, 6 and 9 (end of induction, EOI); after maintenance cycles 12 and 15 (end of treatment, EOT). correlated with response measured according to the Lugano 2014 criteria at various endpoints.
Time frame: 30 months
Impact of daratumumab and bortezomib treatment on biological cell profiles.
The impact of daratumumab and bortezomib treatment in immune activation (CD38, CD25, HLA-DR), T cell differentiation (naïve, central memory, effector memory and terminal effector memory T cell subset) and on circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) as well as Treg will be evaluated by multiparametric flow cytometry (84 multiple staining). Peripheral blood samples will be collected in different timepoints: before treatment start; after cycle 1; after cycle 3 and at EOT.
Time frame: 30 months
Not enrolling at this site.
Plan to share: No
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Studies of the drugs tested here: Daratumumab · Bortezomib · Dexamethasone
Fondazione Italiana Linfomi - ETS