Management of advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma
G.P. Canellos
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The relative safety of ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) and its demonstrated equivalence or superiority to MOPP (nitrogen mustard, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone) or MOPP-containing regimens, including hybrid regimens, in prospective trials led to its widespread use as the standard regimen for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.The ABVD regimen is shown in Table I. In all instances, the patients treated with MOPP or its variants had the known higher rates of septic complications due to the greater degree of myelosuppression as well as an increased likelihood of developing myelodysplasia or acute leukemia compared to ABVD. The ABVD regimen did not appear to have permanent sterilization as a toxic effect.