Chemotherapy

Adcetris – pro

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) for treating patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who have already had a stem cell transplant or are not eligible for one. The drug was also approved for patients with systemic anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL), who have not improved with at least one previous therapy.  Adcetris is a newer type of drug known as an antibody-drug conjugate: a manmade antibody that targets

Read more
Everolimus for Hodgkin’s – pro

Everolimus is an oral antineoplastic agent that targets the raptor mammalian target of rapamycin (mTORC1). The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/mTOR signal transduction pathway has been demonstrated to be activated in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and there was speculation that everolimus might be effective for this disease. Johnston et al studied everolimus in 19 patient. Patients had received a median of six prior therapies (range, 3-14) and 84% had undergone

Read more
Vorinostat for Hodgkin’s – pro

Current front-line chemotherapy drugs are very effective against Hodgkin's  lymphoma but patients who relapse after receiving them are less likely to achieve long-term, disease-free survival with current salvage therapies. This is because Hodgkin's develops resistance to the drugs or the tumor's biology changes in some way to reduce their effectiveness. This led to researchers testing newly released drugs for this purpose. Zolinza is approved

Read more
GDP(Gemcitabine, platin, dexamethasone) for salvage of Hodgkin’s – pro

Relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma is a challenging problem for clinicians who treat hematologic malignancies. The general approach involves salvage chemo and a consideration of stem cell transplantation, if salvage succeeds. Unfortunately, there are no direct comparisons of different salvage combinations and no consensus on the gold-standard second-line chemotherapy. The published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ASCT for RR-HL used mini-BEAM

Read more
Rituxan and Rituxan with Gemcitabine for Hodgkin’s Disease – pro

According to results recently published in the journal Blood, Rituxan® (rituximab) appears to be a promising agent in the treatment of some patients with recurrent Hodgkin's. Rituxan® is a monoclonal antibody approved for treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) and binds to an antigen called CD 20. A small subset of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (3% to 8%) has a type of cancer called CD 20 lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin’s lymphoma, characterized

Read more
BEACOPP and ABVD for Hodgkin’s – pro

MOPP, developed in the mid 1960's, was the first combination chemotherapy regimen for treating Hodgkin's lymphoma (disease) with a high success rate.  It has been used alone or in combination (in part or total) with ABVD chemotherapy.  Studies over the last few years seem to indicate ABVD is just as effective with fewer long term effects.The most widely accepted regimen for HD patients with advanced stage now is ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine,

Read more