Dr. Wistinghausen Discusses the Treatment of Pediatric NHL

Birte Wistinghausen, MD, medical director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Kravis Children's Hospital and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses the treatment of pediatric patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Children and adolescents diagnosed with NHL in the US can expect an event-free survival of 85% to 90% with the currently-available treatments. Birte says that chemotherapy may have reached its limit as a treatment option for these patients. Additionally, the toxicities associated with long-term chemotherapy use is concerning for some clinicians, leading The Children's Oncology Group (COG) to investigate other ways of treating these patients, such as targeted therapies.

Birte, a member of the COG, says that the organization is currently investigating targeted therapies as treatment options for pediatric patients with NHL. The COG is currently involved in 5 studies, which could change the face of pediatric NHL treatment. For example, the phase II/III trial ANHL1131 is evaluating the efficacy and safety of rituximab (Rituxan) in children or adolescents with higher-risk stages of B-cell lymphoma or B-cell leukemia.