An epigenetic drug combined with chemotherapy is effective for lymphoma. « Medicine in the Library

Nearly 90 percent of patients with an aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma had their cancer in remission in a small phase 2 clinical trial testing a treatment aimed at making chemotherapy more effective.

The clinical study, the results of which were published in “Bloodincluded 17 patients with a type of blood cancer called peripheral T-cell lymphoma with follicular T-helper phenotype (PTCL-TFH), also known as angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.

Lymphomas arise from immune cells, mainly B cells and T cells, whose malignant overgrowth leads to swollen lymph nodes. A standard initial therapy for most lymphomas is a four-drug chemotherapy regimen (CHOP) that is usually given in six three-week cycles.

The combination of standard chemotherapy with azacitidine is a promising strategy.

The researchers are now working with international colleagues to study standard chemotherapy with azacitidine in a randomized clinical trial in a group of over 150 patients with PTCL of different subtypes.

Read abstract of the article:
Multicenter Phase 2 Study of Oral azacitidine (CC-486) plus CHOP as initial treatment for peripheral T-cell lymphoma.
Ruan J, Moskowitz AJ, Mehta-Shah N, et al.
Blood. 2023:blood.2022018254. doi: 10.1182/blood.2022018254

This trial was registered at as #NCT03542266.