Overview of novel restore and target treatment approach to classical Hodgkin lymphoma

Clemens Schmitt, MD, PhD, from the Berlin School of Integrative Oncology, Berlin, Germany, gives an overview of the session he chaired, ‘Restore and target: a conceptually novel treatment approach to classical Hodgkin lymphoma’ at the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML) 2017 in Lugano, Switzerland. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is typically a very treatable disease, however, in patients with primary refractory or relapsed disease, the outcome is not as good, therefore novel approaches need to be developed. Hodgkin lymphoma cells present with a transdifferentiated phenotype, lacking multiple components of a typical B-cell. This has lead to the question of whether restoring lymphoma cells to a B-cell phenotype would be therapeutic. Based on a CD-19 promotor luciferase reporter, CD-19 transcription was elicited, resulting in CD-19 and CD-20 expression. Arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid have also been shown to restore the B-cell phenotype. This has resulted in the formulation of the hypothesis that other treatments, such as rituximab and idelalisib may be effective in treating the restored B-cells. He states that there is the potential for this to be combined with, and perhaps even replace, chemotherapy in the future.