title: Chemoimmunotherapy for hairy cell leukemia.
abstract: Success in the treatment of patients with hairy cell leukemia (HCL) over the last several decades is largely due to the high efficacy of the nucleoside analogs, cladribine and pentostatin. However, the relapse-free survival curves have not shown a plateau and many patients treated with these agents will eventually relapse. Although better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms in HCL have led to effective and novel options for the treatment of relapse, long term durability of the responses obtained with these agents still remains unclear. Combination of nucleoside analogs with monoclonal antibodies such as rituximab has been shown to be safe and effective and has the potential to supersede the nucleoside analogs as the frontline strategy. Such chemo-immunotherapy approaches are under further investigation and will have to be assessed with socioeconomic considerations in mind. Other novel monoclonal antibodies, approved for the treatment of other lymphoid neoplasms, may also be considered for future studies of chemo-immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA. Electronic address: fravandi@mdanderson.org.
authors.forename: Farhad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ravandi
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D017338:Cladribine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D007943:Leukemia, Hairy Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D009154:Mutation; D015649:Pentostatin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011379:Prognosis; D048493:Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction; D000069283:Rituximab / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D015649:Pentostatin; D017338:Cladribine; D000069283:Rituximab; C482119:BRAF protein, human; D048493:Proto-Oncogene Proteins B-raf
keywords: Chemoimmunotherapy; Hairy cell leukemia; Nucleoside analogs; Rituximab