Recent progress in the treatment of malignant lymphoma

The present state of the art and developments in the treatment for Hodgkin's disease (HD), follicular lymphoma (FL), MALT lymphoma, and aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are reviewed. Four courses of ABVD therapy (ABVd therapy in Japan) followed by involved-field irradiation (IFRT), and 6 to 8 courses of ABVD (ABVd in Japan) are the current state art of the therapy for early stage HD and advanced stage HD, respectively. High-dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT) is also the state of the art for refractory or relapsed HD within 1 year after complete remission (CR) produced by polychemotherapy. The prognosis of the patients with 3 or more International Prognostic Scores (IPS) is poor. New intensified polychemotherapy or auto-HSCT as up-front setting is under randomized phase III clinical trial in Europe and the USA. There is no state of the art therapy for indolent lymphoma including FL, or MALT. Promising results were reported from clinical studies using new anti-lymphoma drugs such as rituximab, iibritumomab, or purine analogs (cladribine and fludarabine), and auto-HSCT with effectively purged stem cells or allogeneic HSCT. These therapeutic strategies hold a possibility of cure for indolent lymphomas. Antibiotic treatment for Helicobacter pylori-positive localized gastric MALT lymphoma is the state of the art therapy. However, there is no standard therapy for advanced stage MALT lymphoma. Risk adapted therapy using the International Prognostic Index is essential for the treatment of aggressive NHL. Three courses of CHOP followed by IFRT for localized aggressive NHL and 8 courses of CHOP for the low-risk group of advanced stage aggressive NHL are the state of the art therapies, respectively. High-dose chemotherapy with auto-HSCT is also the state of the art for sensitive relapse patients with aggressive NHL. Although some clinical studies suggested that high-dose chemotherapy with auto-HSCT as up-front setting for high-intermediate or high-risk group aggressive NHL is more effective than conventional chemotherapy, the efficacy remains to be determined. The development of new therapeutic strategies with combined use of molecular targeting drugs such as rituximab, or new anti-lymphoma drugs such as purine analogs, and HSCT is desired for more effective therapy for refractory lymphomas.