Dr. Melnick on the Future of Chemotherapy in Lymphomas

Ari M. Melnick, MD, Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses the future of chemotherapy in patients with lymphomas.

Melnick believes that chemotherapy is not required to cure lymphomas. Similar to other tumor types, lymphomas are dependent on several biological factors to survive and grow.

Lymphomas depend on lineage factors: proteins that are present without which the disease cannot survive. Further, somatic mutations occur in lymphomas and are targetable or represent targetable pathways. It is possible, Melnick says, to eradicate all lymphoma cells with targeted agents or various combinations of targeted agents. It is also becoming increasingly possible for agents to erase "instructions" (epigenetic settings) to destroy the disease.

Targeting pathways, lineage factors, and epigenetic settings provide physicians with three ways to combat lymphomas.