Introduction: Follicular lymphoma (FL) may be the second most typical histotype of lymphoma and it is considered an incurable disease. The requirement for new treatments has brought to the introduction of innovative targeted agents, including inhibitors from the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) path.

Areas covered: Copanlisib, an intravenous pan-class I PI3K inhibitor, continues to be authorized by the US Fda (Food and drug administration) to treat relapsed FL in patients who’ve received a minimum of two prior systemic therapies. In the following paragraphs, we critically evaluate the mechanism of action, clinical effectiveness, safety, dosage, administration, and role of copanlisib in treating relapsed FL.

Expert opinion: Treatment with copanlisib leads to clinically relevant and sturdy responses in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory FL. Additionally, copanlisib includes a manageable safety profile within this population, with reduced rates of severe hepatic transaminitis, diarrhea, colitis, and noninfectious pneumonitis. Further investigations of copanlisib within combination regimens will potentially let it move copanlisib for an earlier type of therapy for FL. However, outcomes of the CHRONOS-4 medical trial evaluating copanlisib with standard chemoimmunotherapy (rituximab with bendamustine or CHOP) aren’t yet available.