BC Cancer - Partners in Discovery - Spring 2018 - 14

Promising New Treatment for

Hodgkin Lymphoma

Drug combination has proven more effective than standard
chemotherapy for people with difﬁcult-to-cure cancers

esults from an international clinical trial
led by BC Cancer
oncologist Dr. Joseph
Connors reveal a
promising new treatment combination
for patients with
advanced Hodgkin
lymphoma. Connors,
recognized as one
of the World's Most
Influential Scientific Minds
three years consecutively, has
made a career of innovating effective new treatment options that have
greatly improved outcomes for people
facing lymphoma.
It is especially challenging to
identify new and better treatments
for cancers like Hodgkin lymphoma
because the success rate is already
high, Connors says. However, 25 to
30 per cent of patients are still not
cured today.
To address these difficult-to-cure
cancers, he devised a new treatment
combination based on emerging drugs.
The combination includes a new type
of drug designed to disrupt the surface
of Hodgkin lymphoma cells, allowing
the chemotherapy to not only stick
on the surface of the cancer cells, but
also be pulled into the cell, where the
potent chemotherapy drug is released.
This poisons the cancer cells while
sparing normal cells.
Nearly 1,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma this
year. For those facing advanced disease, new treatment options are critical in growing survival outcomes. The
disease affects more than 66,000 new

PARTNERS IN DISCOVERY

BEAT LYMPHOMA
Drs. Christian Steidl, David
Scott and Joseph Connors of
the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer.
Above Left: Dr. Connors

people around the world each
year and approximately 30
per cent of these people will face treatment resistance or recurrent disease.
The treatment combination offers
hope to Hodgkin lymphoma patients
everywhere with advanced stage disease whose cancer may otherwise
have been resistant to the best current
chemotherapy treatment.
"Our study outcome is positive,
with the new regimen curing more
patients than the old standard regimen," Connors says.
The international, randomized,

To learn more about the lifesaving work underway at
BC Cancer or to make a donation,
visit bccancerfoundation.com/
lymphoma.

phase III ECHELON-1 study enrolled
1,334 patients testing the new drug
combo against the current standard
therapy used worldwide.
Connors built BC Cancer's Centre
for Lymphoid Cancer from the ground
up in the 1980s and '90s, focusing efforts on research projects that
helped define internationally recognized treatment policies for Hodgkin
lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
lymphocytic leukemia and myeloma.

http://www.bccancerfoundation.com/lymphoma http://www.bccancerfoundation.com/lymphoma

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BC Cancer - Partners in Discovery - Spring 2018