Less Intensive Hodgkin's Chemo Works Better

April 10, 2012

Fewer cycles of an intensive chemotherapy regimen for advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma improves outcomes and reduces toxicity, researchers found.

Treatment failure over 5 years actually occurred less often with six cycles of the dose-escalated regimen known as BEACOPP than with the usual eight cycles (89.3% versus 84.4%, 97.5% CI 0.5 to 9.3), according to Andreas Engert, MD, of the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, and colleagues.