Trial’s ‘superior outcomes’ to change cancer treatment worldwide
Medical researchers have set a new benchmark in the way an aggressive lymphatic cancer can be treated and the results have already proven successful for one Kiwi man.
A German Hodgkin Study Group clinical trial spanning three years has found a modification of the standard treatment for advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma to be less toxic but still as effective at killing cancer cells as its counterpart.
The modified regimen, PET 2 guided BrECADD, is now the most effective therapy available for treating advanced Hodgkin lymphoma.
“The analysis of this study, at just under three-and-a-half years, confirmed that 95 per cent of patients remain free of disease recurrence,” chief investigator of the Australian and New Zealand arm of the trial Professor Mark Hertzberg said.
“The trial’s superior outcomes for patients will change how the disease is treated worldwide.”
Hertzberg said results of the ALLG HD10 trial were the best they’ve seen in patients as young as 18 years old through to 60-year-olds.
Not only did the treatment minimise the short and long-term toxic side-effects of the standard treatment, patients also completed their treatment in 12 weeks — half the usual time.
The trial helped Kiwi Hemi Frires treat his advanced stage 4B Hodgkin lymphoma after the Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot joined it in 2019.
“It seemed like a better choice for me as it could be more effective, with a better regimen of chemo, and would be quicker,” he said.
“It [regimen] lasted three months instead of the standard six months of treatment, with chemo every two weeks.
“Fortunately, it was successful. I feel really lucky to have had a good outcome.
“I was able to get back to living life normally, back to work with a full head of hair.
“I am back to fighting fit, and back to flying in the Air Force.”
The modified regimen called BrECADD includes a novel targeted therapy called Brentuximab vedotin, a non-chemotherapy treatment, plus modifications of the standard treatment BEACOPP backbone to make it less toxic.
“For the 60 per cent or so of patients whose Pet scan after only two cycles of BrECADD therapy showed a complete response, their likelihood of remaining free of disease rose to 98 per cent meaning that only 2 per cent of these patients showed recurrent or refractory disease within the first three years,” said Hertzberg.
“This is likely to translate into very few relapses over time.
“The BrECADD regimen also overcomes the concerns around side effects and toxicity of BEACOPP by demonstrating fewer patients require red blood and platelet transfusions and, most importantly, it appears to have no adverse effect on fertility.”