ASH: BR Yes, CHOP No

One last presentation from the ASH conference worth mentioning: Bendamustine is rapidly replacing CHOP.

No links to abstracts (I'm too lazy to look for them), but an article from MedPageToday that's worth looking at; it discusses two ASH presentations on this topic.

The first is from German researchers who have focused on Bendamustine for the last few years. Bendamustine was first developed in East Germany (back when there was an East Germany), and was used there for a while before it was discovered by western Europeans and then by U.S. oncologists. The German study says that about 16% of German indolent lymphoma patients are now given CHOP as a first-line treatment. By contrast, about 71% get Bendamustine. "R-CHOP is dead," said the lead researcher.

I'm not sure that is, or should be, entirely true, given that we're talking about 1) first-line therapies (that is, the first treatment given to a patient), and 2) indolent lymphomas (which could transform, in which case, CHOP might be the best therapy available).

The other presentation, by an American researcher, reported positive results by using Rituxan + Bendamustine and following that up with RadioImmunoTherapy. This consolidation combo produced great results -- not at all surprising, considering the three different mechanisms at work to attack the cancer cells in three different ways.

"R-CHOP is going to be dead," said the lead researcher.

That would certainly be nice, because it would mean that we have enough treatments that are just as effective, without the toxicity.

So maybe something good came out of ASH this year after all.