The researchers on Saturday said that the drugs that help in freeing the immune system of the body from the deadly cancer disease have shown remarkable results in the preliminary stage for treating Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
According to the researchers, the drug called Nivolumab could serve as an effective means of treatment for the cancer in those patients whose disease does not respond to stem cell transplants or chemotherapy.
Nivolumab blocks a distinct pathway that facilitates the spread of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer type that originates in White Blood Cell (WBC).
Experts said that the drugs have created a sense great relief and excitement due to its strong early results in treating various so-called solid tumors, mainly melanoma, kidney cancer, lung cancer and few others.
The results were made public on Saturday and were detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study offers the strongest evidence to date that the medicines, called PD-1 inhibitors, can show promising effects in treating at least some of the liquid tumors related to the blood and bone marrow.
The researchers conducted a small study to check the efficacy of drug Nivolumab. During the study, they found that the drug led to a significant shrinking of tumors in 20 of 23 participating patients, i.e. 87 percent, with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Four of the 23 patients, i.e. 17 percent of the participants, showed a complete response to the treatment. This means 17 percent of the participating patients showed the total or near total disappearance of tumors.