# POLAR BEAR

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/polar-bear/  
OnCo record `polar-bear` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A Nordic trial asking whether the antibody-drug conjugate that improved first-line treatment for younger patients also helps people in their eighties, who were barely represented in the original trial.

## Summary

POLARIX established polatuzumab vedotin in place of vincristine in first-line diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but it enrolled patients up to 80 and the very old and frail were scarcely represented. The standard for that group is R-miniCHOP, a dose-reduced regimen built for tolerability rather than cure. POLAR BEAR asks the same substitution question in exactly the population POLARIX did not answer for.

Eligibility is deliberately narrow and unusual: 80 years or older, or 75 or older and frail by a simplified comprehensive geriatric assessment. Participants are randomised 1 to 1 between R-miniCHOP and R-pola-miniCHP. Both arms run 18 weeks, with follow-up to 36 months after treatment ends. The primary endpoint is progression-free survival, and primary completion is estimated for 28 December 2025, so the first report is close.

Sites are open in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Australia and New Zealand. Using a geriatric assessment as an eligibility criterion, rather than age alone, is the methodological contribution: it is the kind of trial design that the gap between trial populations and real lymphoma patients has been waiting for.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: active
- Last checked: 2026-10-01
- Also known as: POLAR BEAR trial; R-pola-miniCHP in very old patients
- Tags: lymphoma-evidence
- Registry id: NCT04332822
- Phase: 3
- Setting: Aged 80 or over, or 75 or over and frail, with untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: R-miniCHOP against R-pola-miniCHP, which replaces the vincristine with polatuzumab vedotin
- Sponsor: Nordic Lymphoma Group
- Enrolled: 300

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04332822: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04332822

## Connected records

- cancers: [Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/dlbcl/), [Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/)
- fronts: [Antibody-Drug Conjugates](https://onco.cc/fronts/adcs/), [Chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/chemotherapy/)
- technologies: [Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)](https://onco.cc/technologies/adc/)
- targets: [CD20](https://onco.cc/targets/cd20/), [CD79b](https://onco.cc/targets/cd79b/)
- drugs: [Cyclophosphamide](https://onco.cc/drugs/cyclophosphamide/), [Doxorubicin](https://onco.cc/drugs/doxorubicin/), [Polatuzumab vedotin](https://onco.cc/drugs/polatuzumab-vedotin/), [Prednisone](https://onco.cc/drugs/prednisone/), [Rituximab](https://onco.cc/drugs/rituximab/), [Vincristine](https://onco.cc/drugs/vincristine/)
- terms: [R-CHOP (lymphoma chemoimmunotherapy)](https://onco.cc/terms/r-chop/), [The lymphoma regimen alphabet: R-CHOP, pola-R-CHP, DA-EPOCH-R, ABVD, BEACOPP and the rest](https://onco.cc/terms/lymphoma-tx-regimen-alphabet/)
- trials: [ARCHED](https://onco.cc/trials/arched/), [POLARIX](https://onco.cc/trials/polarix/)
- bottlenecks: [Older and multimorbid patients are excluded and undertreated](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-aging-comorbidity/), [Trials do not represent the people who get cancer](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-trial-diversity/), [Trials enrol too few, too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/)
- roadmaps: [Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/lymphoma-roadmap/)
- key papers: [POLARIX: swapping vincristine for the antibody-drug conjugate polatuzumab vedotin in first-line treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-polarix-polatuzumab-rchp-nejm-2022/)

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