Outstanding disease control with a minimized BEACOPP exposure and toxicity

<p class="article-intro">The AHL2011 phase-III-trial LYSA shows that after two cycles of escalated BEACOPP PET-imaging can be used to guide subsequent treatment. Treatment-related toxicity can be reduced for patients with negative PET2 switching to ABVD.</p> <hr /> <p class="article-content"><p>Six cycles of BEACOPP provide a better long-term disease control than ABVD in advanced Hodgkin lymphoma but is associated to more frequent hematological toxicity and a higher risk of myelodysplasia/acute leukemia and infertility. The AHL2011 demonstrate that a de-escalation treatment with a switch from BEACOPP to ABVD is possible after two cycles of BEACOPP in most patients (84 % ) who reached a negative PET2 maintaining the same level of disease control and drastically reducing the risk of the treatment toxicity compared to patients who received the standard six cycles of BEACOPP.</p> <p>So, without any new drug, this approach based on the early response assessment using functional imaging (PET) improve the management of patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma, providing a better balance tolerability/efficacy of BEACOPP-based treatment and a better patient outcome (5y-PFS&gt;85 % and 5y-OS&gt;95 % ) than ABVD.</p> <p><strong>Reference:</strong> <br /><em>Casasnovas O et al.: Final analysis of the AHL2011 randomized phase III LYSA study comparing an early PET driven treatment de-escalation to a not PET-monitored strategy in patients with advanced stages hodgkin lymphoma. EHA Annual Congress, abstract # S110</em></p></p>