{"entity":{"id":"relapsed-refractory","kind":"term","name":"Relapsed / refractory (R/R)","aka":["R/R","relapsed/refractory","relapsed or refractory","relapsed and refractory","refractory","relapsed","primary refractory","chemorefractory","chemo-refractory","treatment-refractory","heavily pretreated","pretreated","previously treated","triple-class refractory","penta-refractory","BCG-refractory","double-refractory"],"tldr":"Relapsed means the cancer came back after responding; refractory means it never responded or grew during treatment. 'R/R' is the label on most trials of new blood cancer drugs.","summary":"The distinction matters for prognosis and drug choice: refractory disease is biologically more resistant, and the interval to relapse (early relapse within 12 months of chemoimmunotherapy in lymphoma, platinum-resistant relapse within 6 months in ovarian cancer) is itself a stratification factor. Regulators define trial populations by prior lines and drug classes, so terms such as 'triple-class refractory' (myeloma resistant to a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulator and a CD38 antibody) or 'BCG-unresponsive' bladder cancer describe specific unmet needs that new drugs are approved for. Most accelerated approvals are in R/R settings before drugs move to earlier lines.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relapse","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relapse"}],"tags":[],"related":["first-line","salvage-therapy","platinum-sensitivity","accelerated-approval","resistance"],"cancers":[],"sections":["chemotherapy"],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Treatment jargon"},"route":"/terms/relapsed-refractory/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"accelerated-approval","kind":"term","name":"Accelerated approval","route":"/terms/accelerated-approval/"},{"id":"resistance","kind":"term","name":"Drug resistance (primary and acquired)","route":"/terms/resistance/"},{"id":"first-line","kind":"term","name":"Lines of therapy","route":"/terms/first-line/"},{"id":"platinum-sensitivity","kind":"term","name":"Platinum-sensitive / platinum-resistant","route":"/terms/platinum-sensitivity/"},{"id":"salvage-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Salvage therapy","route":"/terms/salvage-therapy/"}],"section":[{"id":"chemotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Chemotherapy","route":"/fronts/chemotherapy/"}],"journal":[{"id":"lancet-haematology","kind":"journal","name":"The Lancet Haematology","route":"/journals/lancet-haematology/"}]}}