Dr. Stephen Robinson of the Bristol Hematology Oncology Centre discusses first and second-line therapies for individuals with Hodgkin lymphoma. Most patients with Hodgkin lymphoma are cured with first-line chemotherapy however up to a third of these patients can relapse, who then must undergo an intensive induction chemotherapy and a subsequent autologous stem-cell transplant. It can be challenging to salvage a response to induction chemotherapy therefore, new induction regimes have been developed. Moreover, it is challenging to obtain a response to induction therapy from some patients, who are also most probably at a higher risk of relapse after transplantation, therefore it is important to develop consolidation strategies. If the patient relapses, they might receive the new PD1 inhibitors to obtain a response to induction chemotherapy, followed by an allogeneic transplant. This demonstrates that there are various transplant strategies that can be employed depending on the type of patient and their response. Recorded at the 2017 annual meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
