The frontline regimens slightly varied over time and could be summarized as curative intention (CHOP or CHOP-like) or palliative intention (COP) depending on the use or not of adriamycin.
Among the 13 patients who achieved CR at the early evaluation after 2 5 treatment cycles, the frontline treatment regimen was ABVD (adriamycin + bleomycin + vinblastine + dacarbazine) and the median number of BV courses was nine.
Most patients present with advanced stage disease and though the majority of them experience remission after surgery and a frontline platinum/taxane-based regimen, the relapse rate is 80% (Bookman et al, 2009).
In patients with first to fourth molecular relapse after frontline therapy with the AIDA regimen, GO induced remission in 9 (91 %) out of 11 patients tested after two doses of 6 mg/m and in 13 (100 %) of 13 patients tested after the third dose.
We have previously demonstrated that for locally advanced tumours treated with a frontline cyclophosphamide anthracyclin (AC) dose-dense regimen (Cottu et al, 1999), only tumours with inactivating mutations in the P53 tumour suppressor reached pCR (Bertheau et al, 2002, 2007).
Chemoimmunotherapy regimens are being actively explored in frontline CLL therapy, and numerous combination regimens have been investigated in relapse.
Response rates as a frontline of various combination chemotherapy regimens ranged between 30 and 70%, but median OS rarely exceeded 10 months (Murad et al, 1993; Pyrhonen et al, 1995; Glimelius et al, 1997; Wils, 1998).
Fludarabine-containing regimens are typically used in the frontline treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), but relapse is common and response rate with re-treatment is generally inferior to response as first-line treatment.
Frontline chemotherapy for ovarian cancer involves use of the platinum/taxane regimen, which are known to induce ROS production.
