Open AccessCurrent Status of Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Relapsed and Refractory Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Author(s) -
Colpo Anna,
Hochberg Ephraim,
Chen YiBin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the oncologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.176
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1549-490X
pISSN - 1083-7159
DOI - 10.1634/theoncologist.2011-0177
Subject(s) - medicine , autologous stem cell transplantation , oncology , salvage therapy , chemotherapy , refractory (planetary science) , lymphoma , transplantation , disease , surgery , physics , astrobiology
Despite the relatively high long‐term disease‐free survival (DFS) rate for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) with modern combination chemotherapy or combined modality regimens, ∼20% of patients die from progressive or relapsed disease. The standard treatment for relapsed and primary refractory HL is salvage chemotherapy followed by high‐dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), which has shown a 5‐year progression‐free survival rate of ∼50%–60%. Recent developments in a number of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities have begun to improve these results. Functional imaging, refinement of clinical prognostic factors, and development of novel biomarkers have improved the predictive algorithms, allowing better patient selection and timing for ASCT. In addition, these algorithms have begun to identify a group of patients who are candidates for more aggressive treatment beyond standard ASCT. Novel salvage regimens may potentially improve the rate of complete remission prior to ASCT, and the use of maintenance therapy after ASCT has become a subject of current investigation. We present a summary of developments in each of these areas.