Current Trends in the Treatment of Lymphoma

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The potentially curable nature of lymphoma, often even in advanced stages, sets this malignancy apart from many others. However, a significant number of patients will suffer a relapse following successful initial treatment. Of these patients, many will respond well to further treatment to salvage a cure. Unfortunately, many others will perish from the disease.

The fight to discover better treatment has been ongoing for many years and has met with several setbacks. Over the decades, several more intensive chemotherapy regimens were designed. These regimens lead to increased toxicity of treatment without delivering on the promise of a better outcome. Fortunately, the arrival of targeted therapy has heralded the dawn of a new age in cancer treatment.

In the quest for better treatment, specific therapy that targets the lymphoma cells and boosts efficacy while minimizing the "collateral damage" to normal cells of the body, remains the holy grail of lymphoma treatment strategy.

Over the last few years, targeted therapy has become a reality. Antibodies are the "smart bombs" of our immune system that allow our bodies to successfully fight off infections by specifically targeting the disease-causing bacteria and viruses that invades our bodies. Advancement in biotechnology has allowed the creation of antibodies that target tumour cells.

Rituximab is an antibody engineered to target many forms of lymphoma cells. The use of rituximab in patients with aggressive lymphoma displaying the target has lead to a dramatic decrease in relapse rate not seen in several decades. Large-scale clinical studies performed in Europe and the United States have consistently demonstrated the benefit of adding rituximab to conventional chemotherapy in improving cure rates. Data from the British Colombia in Canada where rituximab was widely adopted in the treatment of aggressive lymphoma have shown encouraging improvement in survival rates thus proving that the good results seen in clinical trials can be duplicated in the community at large.

Further development in the use of antibodies in low-grade lymphoma has yielded a newer generation of monoclonal antibodies that carry radioactivity such as Zevalin and Bexaar. The antibodies seek out the lymphoma cells while the radioactive isotopes carried by the antibodies destroy them. Such advancement allows radiation to be delivered to the disease sites and spares the rest of the body from unneeded radiation. Early clinical studies employing this breakthrough treatment have produced encouraging results.

These improvements give us cause for optimism in our relentless pursuit of better cancer treatment.

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