RESUMEN
The German Hodgkin Study Group developed the escalated BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone) protocol as a treatment strategy for advanced-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma. In Brazil, as well as in other countries, procarbazine has been replaced with dacarbazine due to the limited availability of procarbazine. The Hematology Center at Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia in São Paulo adopted and modified the escalated BEACOPP protocol, substituting prednisone with dexamethasone and incorporating two different doses of dacarbazine: 375 mg/m2/day on Day 8 or the original dose of 250 mg/m2/day on Days 2 and 3. This adjustment was made in response to the anticipated toxicity profile. This study aimed to compare the two different doses in the protocols (375 mg/m2/cycle versus 500 mg/m2/cycle) administered to patients with advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma in similar periods. This retrospective study analyzed the data of 31 patients at a single center in Brazil from 2019 to 2021. Seventeen of the 31 patients received 500 mg/m2/cycle (500 Group), while 14 received 375 mg/m2/cycle (375 Group). At the end of the protocol, 71% of the patients in the 375 Group and 76% in the 500 Group achieved complete remission. On analyzing the number of cycles that patients presented with febrile neutropenia, the 500 Group had three times more events (17.9%) than the 375 Group (6.09% - p-value = 0.04). In the 500 Group, 47.1% needed to change the protocol to ABVD (doxorubicin hydrochloride, bleomycin sulfate, vinblastine sulfate, and dacarbazine) due to toxicity. In this limited cohort from a single public center in Brazil, the use of 375 mg/m2 of dacarbazine per cycle of the modified escalated BEACOPP protocol emerged as a safer strategy, maintaining treatment efficacy without compromising response in patients with advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma.
RESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Treatment-free remission (TFR) is successful in half of the patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who discontinue Imatinib (IM) after sustained molecular response. METHODS: In a prospective trial, we used pioglitazone for 3 months before stopping IM in 30 patients. Percentages of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets were assessed before and after treatment. The relation of these data with duration of IM treatment and TRF were examined. RESULTS: The median time of IM treatment was 117.6 months. After discontinuation, 11 patients had molecular recurrence after 5.2 months (2.4 - 30). The observation time for those remaining in TFR was 46 (26 - 56) months. The independent factors for the maintenance of TFR were the duration of IM treatment and the percentage of double-positive T cells at IM stop. CONCLUSION: A longer treatment with imatinib was associated with a longer TFR after discontinuation. Pioglitazone could act as an immunomodulator, increasing DP T cells which may contribute to prevent relapse.