Israeli Study Reports 100% One-Year Survival Using New -Protocol for Advanced Hodgkin’s - ‘A true revolution in Hodgkin lymphoma care.’

Israeli researchers have reported a new treatment for advanced‑stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma (a type of cancer of the white blood cells) that achieved a 100% one‑year overall survival rate in a large cohort of patients participating in their program.

Israeli researchers have unveiled an innovative treatment for advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma that they say resulted in a one-year survival rate of 100 per cent, representing a “true revolution” in caring for people with the disease.

While traditionally the management of patients with advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma has relied exclusively on chemotherapy, the new treatment combines advanced chemotherapy with targeted biological therapy.

The groundbreaking study was conducted across 15 Israeli medical centres. Of 79 patients, 95 percent of experienced complete response to the treatment – meaning all detectable signs of a disease disappeared, with just four per cent of participants requiring additional radiation therapy, according to the results, published in the medical journal, Blood.

The treatment also appeared to cause fewer, and less harsh, side effects compared with traditional approaches.

BREAKING: Israeli scientists just delivered a miracle at the world’s top cancer conference, a new treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma showing a 100% survival rate.

The protocol is a combined “chemo‑biologic regimen” (often referred to as the BREcADD protocol) that was based on a prior German trial that was then further modified by the Israeli researchers.

Dr. Roy Vitkon of Ichilov Medical Center said expectations for the protocol rose sharply after a major German study published in The Lancet last year showed near-universal cure rates. He noted that earlier regimens were effective but came with harsh side effects, while the new approach appeared both stronger and easier for patients to tolerate. Vitkon said Israel moved quickly to test the method in routine clinical practice, gathering data from nearly 100 patients over the past two years.

According to Vitkon, Israel was the first country to produce real-world data confirming the protocol’s effectiveness. He described the multi-center cooperation as an achievement in its own right, saying the strong alignment with the German study gives physicians confidence to continue adopting the treatment.

In a multi-center Israeli trial for advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, 95% of patients had a complete response and the 1-year survival rate was 100%. Chemo plus targeted biological therapy. While the world screams about Israel, its doctors quietly rewrite cancer care.…

Hodgkin lymphoma can occur in both children and adults, but it appears most often in young adults, particularly those in their 20s. The likelihood of developing Hodgkin lymphoma increases again later in life, starting around age 55.

The American Cancer Society’s estimates for Hodgkin lymphoma in the United States for 2025 are:

The initial signs of this disease include swollen lymph nodes that are painless at first. Ongoing systemic effects can include increasing fatigue, loss of appetite, more pronounced weight loss, persistent fevers and night sweats, and sometimes itching, bone pain, or symptoms from bone marrow involvement (e.g., frequent infections, easy bruising, or worsening anemia).

Interestingly, last year, there was a report about a successful new treatment strategy involving the immunotherapy drug nivolumab along with three different chemotherapies. The protocol was found to result in a two-year survival rate of 92% in a phase three trial whose results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Like the Israeli study, the test treatments were coordinated at numerous medical sites.

The new study included nearly 1,000 people who were at least 12 years old and newly diagnosed with stage III or IV Hodgkin lymphoma that had previously been untreated.

Between July 2019 and October 2022, the patients were randomly assigned to receive one of two treatment regimens; 496 patients were assigned to receive the antibody drug brentuximab vedotin along with the chemotherapy drugs doxorubicin, vinblastine and dacarbazine, while 498 others received nivolumab along with that same trio of chemotherapies.

The patients received the treatments intravenously on the first day and then about two weeks later within a 28-day cycle. This was repeated for six cycles.

The patients were based at 256 sites across the United States and Canada. One of the sponsors of the trial was Bristol-Myers Squibb, which makes nivolumab and supplied the drug for the study.

It is heartening to know that modern medicine can still create seemingly miraculous levels of healing!

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Thank You, God!

I have prayed for a cure, of this and other hideous diseases. When I graduated from medical school, it was universally fatal. So were other disease, now cured.

I remember in particular, a beautiful, handsome little boy with Hodgkin's lymphoma, on my pediatrics rotation. I can never forget him. Tears fill my eyes when I think of him.

And a beautiful little girl who cried when I came to draw blood from her. And her father! Tears roll down my cheeks as I think of them. I shall never forget!

I can never forget many--maybe all--of the patients I treated and even encountered. May God bless them all!

Western Civilization is one of God's greatest blessings. Through it, He has cured many horrifying diseases. Many more such miracles are yet to come.

Western Civilization is well worth preserving--worth fighting for!

President Trump has led the charge against its decay. He is determined to reverse the decadence and restore America--and the world if possible--to ascendance. Pray that he will succeed.

Many more miracles are yet to come!

Pray for them!

The little girl's name was Charlotte. It was 63 years ago.

Another little girl whom I helped treat for leukemia was Mary, also 63 years ago.

Tears fall from my eyes as I remember all of the people I helped treat, children, old people, young people, people of all backgrounds, races, ages, experiences. I loved them all! I still do.

There was an old man with terminal cancer. As I cleaned his terrible wound, he kept apologizing to me. I said: "Let me tell you something. There is nowhere I in world I'd rather be right now and nothing that I would rather be doing than this." I felt him sink into rest with those kind words and that reassurance.

God works through all of us. It is up to us not to resist, to allow the Holy Spirit to flow freely through us. Not only is this our responsibility, but it is the greatest source of joy, beauty, love, and truth. I experienced all of this as I cleaned his wound, as a terrible situation was transfigured into one of the most beautiful.

WIKI

Nivolumab, sold under the brand name Opdivo, is an anti-cancer medication in the class of immune checkpoint inhibitors. It is used to treat certain types of cancer including melanoma, lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck cancer, urothelial carcinoma, colon cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. It is administered intravenously.

Nivolumab’s mechanism of action is based on its role as a monoclonal antibody that selectively binds to the programmed death-1 (PD-1) receptor on the surface of T cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a crucial role in the immune system’s ability to combat malignancies. Normally, certain cancer cells exploit the PD-1 pathway to shield themselves from the immune response by expressing programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), which interacts with the PD-1 receptor and inhibits T-cell activation and proliferation. Nivolumab interrupts this interaction by binding to the PD-1 receptor, thereby blocking tumor cells from evading immune detection. This blockade enhances T-cell response, boosts the immune system’s anti-tumor activity, and ultimately contributes to the destruction of cancer cells.

PD-1 is a protein located on the surface of T cells that have been activated in the body’s immune response. Normally, the immune system is controlled in part by certain molecules, such as PD-L1 or PD-L2, which can bind to PD-1. By binding, they prevent the T cell from taking action and so prevent an excessive immune reaction. However, many cancer cells take advantage of this system by producing PD-L1 themselves, effectively shutting down T cells and protecting the tumor from an immune attack. Nivolumab interferes with this process—it attaches to PD-1 and prevents PD-L1 from binding to it, which frees the T cells to target and destroy the tumor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nivolumab

WIKI

CTLA-4 inhibitors

The first checkpoint antibody approved by the FDA was ipilimumab, approved in 2011 for treatment of melanoma. It blocks the immune checkpoint molecule CTLA-4. Clinical trials have also shown some benefits of anti-CTLA-4 therapy on lung cancer or pancreatic cancer, specifically in combination with other drugs.

However, patients treated with check-point blockade (specifically CTLA-4 blocking antibodies), or a combination of check-point blocking antibodies, are at high risk of suffering from immune-related adverse events such as dermatologic, gastrointestinal, endocrine, or hepatic autoimmune reactions. These are most likely due to the breadth of the induced T-cell activation when anti-CTLA-4 antibodies are administered by injection in the blood stream.

Using a mouse model of bladder cancer, researchers have found that a local injection of a low dose anti-CTLA-4 in the tumour area had the same tumour inhibiting capacity as when the antibody was delivered in the blood

PD-1 inhibitors [Opdivo, Keytruda, Libtayo, Jemperli]

Initial clinical trial results with IgG4 PD-1 antibody nivolumab (under the brand name Opdivo and developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb) were published in 2010. It was approved in 2014. Nivolumab is approved to treat melanoma, lung cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, head and neck cancer, and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda) is another PD-1 inhibitor that was approved by the FDA in 2014 and was the second checkpoint inhibitor approved in the United States. Keytruda is approved to treat melanoma and lung cancer and is produced by Merck.

Spartalizumab (PDR001) is a PD-1 inhibitor being developed by Novartis to treat both solid tumors and lymphomas.

PD-L1 inhibitors [Tecentriq, Bavencio, Imfinzi]

In May 2016, PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab was approved for treating bladder cancer.

LAG-3 Inhibitors

In 2022, the FDA approved a combination of relatlimab and nivolumab (Opdivo) to be marketed under the name Opdualag for people aged 12 or older with previously untreated melanoma that cannot be removed surgically or has spread (metastasized) within the body. Relatlimab blocks a protein on immune cells called LAG-3.

Intracellular checkpoint inhibitors

Other modes of enhancing [adoptive] immunotherapy include targeting so-called intrinsic checkpoint blockades. Many of these intrinsic regulators include molecules with ubiquitin ligase activity, including CBLB, and CISH....(cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoint_inhibitor

“cancer finds sophisticated ways to hide from immune attacks. One way is by ramping up braking mechanisms designed to prevent immune cells from attacking normal tissue. In the 1990s, [James P] Allison discovered the first of these built-in brakes, known as checkpoints. Other teams were investigating the potential of enhancing the action of checkpoints to treat autoimmune diseases, but Allison showed that doing the reverse – switching off the brakes – could produce remarkable results in treating mice with cancer.”

“Independently, in 1992, [Tasuku] Honjo discovered a second checkpoint that worked through a different mechanism and treatments based on this work have produced dramatic improvements to patient outcomes in the clinic.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/01/james-p-allison-and-tasuku-honjo-win-nobel-prize-for-medicine

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