Seeking Safer Treatments for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Dr. Mitchell Cairo to Lead New Clinical Trial
The Clinical Trial Explores the Use of Immunotherapy to Treat the Disease with Fewer Long-term Complications
Nationally renowned pediatric oncologist Mitchell Cairo, M.D., professor of pediatrics, medicine, cell biology and anatomy and of pathology, microbiology, and immunology and vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics, will lead a new clinical trial to advance safer, more precise treatments for Hodgkin’s lymphoma—particularly for children, adolescents, and young adults. The clinical trial is funded in part by a prestigious Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program grant from New York State awarded to Westchester Medical Center (WMC), where Dr. Cairo is chief of pediatric hematology, oncology, and stem cell transplantation; director of Children and Adolescent Cancer and Blood Diseases Center; and director of the WMC Cancer Center.
While cure rates for Hodgkin’s lymphoma now exceed 90 percent, many survivors—especially young ones—face devastating long-term consequences, including secondary cancers, infertility, and heart disease. Dr. Cairo’s research aims to transform that paradigm by evaluating targeted immunotherapies that offer the same cure rates with fewer life-altering side effects.
“It’s not enough to cure Hodgkin’s lymphoma—we must also spare young patients from a lifetime of avoidable complications,” Dr. Cairo said. “This study is about replacing the toxicity of yesterday’s treatments with the precision of today’s immunotherapy, giving survivors the chance to live long, healthy lives free from preventable harm.”
The clinical trial will investigate the use of targeted immunotherapies to treat Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The drugs being tested in the trial—all of which are FDA-approved—include an antibody-drug conjugate, a monoclonal antibody, and a checkpoint blockade inhibitor. A total of 40 patients are expected to enroll in the study; full enrollment is expected within the two-year funding period.
Dr. Cairo, who has already led an initial phase of the clinical trial, presented findings on the first 15 patients during the 18th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, in June in Lugano, Switzerland.
