Evaluating ESHAO chemotherapy for patients with hard-to-treat Hodgkin’s lymphoma

This study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of ESHAOx chemotherapy for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) that has come back or stopped responding to treatment. This study found that this regimen is effective, with manageable side effects.

Most patients with HL respond well to initial treatment. However, some patients experience relapse (cancer comes back) or become refractory (stop responding to treatment). This type of HL can be hard to treat. High-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant is a common treatment option for these patients. There are several different drug combinations used for high-dose chemotherapy. 

Many regimens use a drug containing platinum, which binds to DNA. Oxaliplatin (Eloxatin) is a platinum drug that tends to have fewer side effects than earlier platins. ESHAOx is a chemotherapy regimen that substitutes cisplatin (Platinol) with oxaliplatin. Whether ESHAOx is effective for patients with refractory HL is unclear.

This study followed 37 patients with HL that came back or stopped responding to treatment. Patients received up to 6 cycles of treatment. On average, patients received 3 cycles. Patients were followed for an average of 18.9 months.

Overall, 72.2% of patients responded to treatment. 33.3% of patients had no signs of cancer after treatment. 38.9% of patients had tumor shrinkage. On average, the average time until cancer progressed (became worse) was 34.9 months.

Patients whose cancer was more advanced (stage III or IV) were less likely to respond to treatment compared to patients with early-stage disease (60.9% vs 92.3%).

62.2% of patients had low white blood cell count. Nausea was also common (59.5%) Low red blood cell levels (48.6%) and low platelet levels (37.8%) were also reported.

Serious side effects were also reported. The most common ones were low white blood cell count (43.2%) and low platelet count (27.0%). 8.1% of patients reported severe nausea.

The study found that ESHAOx is safe and effective for patients with relapsed or refractory HL. The authors suggest that this regimen is as effective as other common regimens used to treat relapsed or refractory HL.

This study did not directly compare ESHAOx with the ESHAP regimen, which contains cisplatin. This study also had a small number of patients. More studies are needed to confirm these results.