New developments in the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma – role of Belinostat

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) represent a heterogeneous group of rare malignancies that with the exception of anaplastic lymphoma kinase expressing anaplastic large cell lymphoma, share a poor outcome after standard (eg, anthracycline-based) chemotherapy. Most patients are either refractory to initial therapy or eventually relapse. Randomized studies for relapsed/refractory PTCL are not available, however, recently published data show that conventional chemotherapy has very limited efficacy in the salvage setting. Thus, novel drugs are urgently needed to improve the outcome in this setting. Belinostat, a pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor, has demonstrated meaningful efficacy and a favorable toxicity profile in two single-arm Phase II trials on 153 patients with relapsed/refractory PTCL. The conclusive results led to an accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration. The present review summarizes the clinical data available for belinostat, its current role, and future perspectives.