How much of a concern is secondary acute leukemia and myelodysplasia after BEACOPP escalated?

FAQ published on March 5, 2014
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Andreas Engert, MD
Professor of Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology
University Clinic of Cologne
Cologne, Germany
How much of a concern is secondary acute leukemia and myelodysplasia after BEACOPP escalated?

Hello, my name is Andreas Engert. I am chairman of the German Hodgkin Study Group. I am a professor for hematology, oncology, and internal medicine here at the University Hospital in Cologne.

When we started with BEACOPP escalated, we gave 8 cycles of this treatment; and up to now, more than 4,000 patients have received this treatment, and we see approximately 1.5%-2% of patients experiencing this long-term side effect. Most of it is actually acute leukemia. There are very few patients with MDS. So it is acute leukemia and mostly are cured within 5 years of treatment; that is being observed with other regimens such as ABVD or COPP and others. The question was, is it more frequent with BEACOPP escalated? This is not completely answered, this question. What we see is that with 8 cycles, we had somewhat more. In our last trial, we had only 0.6, so that is much less, just a very few number of leukemias. So, it seems to be going down with less treatment given which makes sense, and this compares very favorably with data observed with other regimens.

Last modified: March 5, 2014
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