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9 treatment settings, 9 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
FDG-PET/CT with Lugano staging, International Prognostic Score, fertility counselling and cardiac and pulmonary baselines.
FDG PET is the standard PET scan. A radioactive sugar shows which tissues are burning glucose fast, which most cancers do.
Protecting the ability to have children before cancer treatment that damages eggs, sperm or the womb: sperm and egg or embryo freezing, ovarian tissue freezing, ovarian shielding and, for some breast cancers, temporary ovarian suppression.
Cardio-oncology builds heart risk assessment, monitoring and prevention into cancer care so patients can finish curative treatment without trading cancer for heart failure. It targets anthracycline and trastuzumab damage, checkpoint-inhibitor myocarditis and radiation heart disease using echocardiography, troponin tests and protective drugs; specialist clinics are concentrated in large centres.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Nivolumab with AVD for six cycles (SWOG S1826, preferred); brentuximab vedotin with AVD (ECHELON-1) as an alternative; PET-adapted ABVD with bleomycin omission after two cycles (RATHL) where antibodies are unavailable.
Nivolumab was the second PD-1 blocker and is often combined with ipilimumab. Long-term data show about half of advanced melanoma patients alive at 10 years on the combination.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.
Vinblastine is the vinca alkaloid in ABVD, the standard Hodgkin lymphoma regimen, and was formerly in the cisplatin combinations that first cured testicular cancer.
Dacarbazine is an older chemotherapy infusion. It was the standard treatment for advanced melanoma for decades and is the D in the ABVD regimen that cures most Hodgkin lymphoma.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis with ipilimumab (1+3 mg/kg) · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis with ipilimumab · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 15% | 13.4% |
| Colitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Hepatitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
BrECADD for four to six cycles guided by interim PET (GHSG HD21), replacing escalated BEACOPP.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
Scan after two cycles of chemotherapy; if the tumour has gone dark, give less treatment, and if not, give more. Hodgkin lymphoma pioneered this.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Response-adapted Children's Oncology Group or EuroNet regimens; brentuximab vedotin with AVD in advanced paediatric disease; radiotherapy for slow responders only.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
Scan after two cycles of chemotherapy; if the tumour has gone dark, give less treatment, and if not, give more. Hodgkin lymphoma pioneered this.
No headline result recorded yet.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
AVD with brentuximab vedotin sequenced before and after, or nivolumab-AVD; avoid bleomycin and BEACOPP.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
Nivolumab was the second PD-1 blocker and is often combined with ipilimumab. Long-term data show about half of advanced melanoma patients alive at 10 years on the combination.
The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.
Cardio-oncology builds heart risk assessment, monitoring and prevention into cancer care so patients can finish curative treatment without trading cancer for heart failure. It targets anthracycline and trastuzumab damage, checkpoint-inhibitor myocarditis and radiation heart disease using echocardiography, troponin tests and protective drugs; specialist clinics are concentrated in large centres.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis with ipilimumab (1+3 mg/kg) · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis with ipilimumab · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 15% | 13.4% |
| Colitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Hepatitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
PET-directed consolidation radiotherapy only for residual PET-positive bulky disease; long-term survivorship follow-up.
FDG PET is the standard PET scan. A radioactive sugar shows which tissues are burning glucose fast, which most cancers do.
IMRT and IGRT shape the radiation beam to the tumour's outline from multiple angles and check the patient's position with a scan before every session, so surrounding organs receive less dose. Fewer, larger doses are now standard in breast and prostate cancer, but a low-dose bath still spreads across normal tissue.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
SWOG S1826 randomised 994 patients aged 12 and over with untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma to nivolumab with AVD or to brentuximab vedotin with AVD, the regimen that had itself displaced ABVD. Two-year progression-free survival was 92 against 83 per cent (hazard ratio 0.45), and any-grade peripheral neuropathy was 28.1 against 54.2 per cent. It is the first trial in this disease to include adolescents and adults in a single protocol, and the FDA approved nivolumab with doxorubicin, vinblastine and dacarbazine for previously untreated stage III or IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma in adults and children of 12 and over on 20 March 2026, converting the two earlier relapsed-disease accelerated approvals to traditional approval at the same time. It is a genuinely gentler regimen as well as a more effective one: less neuropathy, less growth-factor requirement, and no bleomycin. The subset analysis of the 99 eligible patients aged 60 and over reported two-year progression-free survival of 89 per cent with nivolumab-AVD against 64 per cent with brentuximab-AVD (hazard ratio 0.24) and two-year overall survival of 96 against 85 per cent (hazard ratio 0.16), with non-relapse mortality of 6 against 16 per cent, 55 per cent discontinuing brentuximab vedotin against 14 per cent discontinuing nivolumab, and six cycles delivered without dose reduction in 69 against 26 per cent. That matters, because older patients tolerate brentuximab-AVD badly and are the group in which first-line treatment most often fails. What is not yet known: overall survival has not separated, follow-up is short for a disease measured in decades, and the long-term consequences of PD-1 blockade in a 20-year-old who will live another 60 years are unknown. That last point is the honest counter-argument to adopting it everywhere.
Nivolumab was the second PD-1 blocker and is often combined with ipilimumab. Long-term data show about half of advanced melanoma patients alive at 10 years on the combination.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.
Vinblastine is the vinca alkaloid in ABVD, the standard Hodgkin lymphoma regimen, and was formerly in the cisplatin combinations that first cured testicular cancer.
Dacarbazine is an older chemotherapy infusion. It was the standard treatment for advanced melanoma for decades and is the D in the ABVD regimen that cures most Hodgkin lymphoma.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis with ipilimumab (1+3 mg/kg) · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis with ipilimumab · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 15% | 13.4% |
| Colitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Hepatitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
GHSG HD21 randomised about 1,500 patients aged 18 to 60 with untreated advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma to PET-guided BrECADD or PET-guided escalated BEACOPP. Four-year progression-free survival was 94.3 against 90.9 per cent (hazard ratio 0.66) and treatment-related morbidity, a composite of organ toxicity, infection and haematological toxicity, was 42 against 59 per cent. BrECADD replaces the bleomycin, vincristine and procarbazine of escalated BEACOPP with brentuximab vedotin and dacarbazine, which removes the lung toxicity, most of the neuropathy and much of the infertility risk, and PET guidance means most patients receive four cycles rather than six. This is the highest progression-free survival reported in advanced Hodgkin lymphoma. It is also intensive treatment that requires an experienced unit, hospital admission for febrile neutropenia in a substantial minority, and growth-factor support throughout. The earlier PET-guided BEACOPP trials, HD18 and AHL2011, established the principle: HD18 reduced treatment from eight cycles to four in PET-negative patients, and AHL2011 switched PET-negative patients from escalated BEACOPP to ABVD, in both cases without losing disease control.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
Etoposide is a chemotherapy from the mayapple plant, essential to curing testicular cancer (BEP), treating small-cell lung cancer, lymphomas, childhood sarcomas and leukaemias, and used in transplant conditioning.
Cyclophosphamide is an alkylating chemotherapy that damages DNA in dividing cells. It is part of CHOP for lymphoma, AC for breast cancer and VAC for childhood sarcomas, clears lymphocytes before CAR-T and prevents graft-versus-host disease after transplant; bladder bleeding, infertility and secondary leukaemia are its harms.
The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.
Dacarbazine is an older chemotherapy infusion. It was the standard treatment for advanced melanoma for decades and is the D in the ABVD regimen that cures most Hodgkin lymphoma.
Dexamethasone is a long-acting glucocorticoid steroid that kills lymphoid cancer cells directly, which is why it sits in nearly every myeloma regimen and in childhood leukaemia and lymphoma protocols. It is also the standard drug for preventing chemotherapy sickness and for brain swelling and spinal cord compression; high blood sugar, insomnia, muscle wasting and infection follow prolonged use.
Procarbazine (Matulane) is an old chemotherapy capsule from the MOPP regimen for Hodgkin lymphoma; it is now used mainly in the PCV combination for certain brain tumours.
Bleomycin is the 'B' in BEP for testicular cancer and ABVD for Hodgkin lymphoma; its unique danger is scarring of the lungs, so lung function is monitored and it is often dropped when safe.
A plant-derived chemotherapy from the Madagascar periwinkle that has been in almost every childhood leukaemia and lymphoma regimen since the 1960s.
FDG PET is the standard PET scan. A radioactive sugar shows which tissues are burning glucose fast, which most cancers do.
Scan after two cycles of chemotherapy; if the tumour has gone dark, give less treatment, and if not, give more. Hodgkin lymphoma pioneered this.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
The two regimens that the current standards displaced are still used, and still reasonable where the newer ones are not available. ABVD with PET adaptation. RATHL enrolled 1,214 patients and showed that in those whose PET after two cycles was negative, bleomycin could be omitted from cycles 3 to 6 without loss of control: three-year progression-free survival 85.7 per cent for continued ABVD against 84.4 per cent for AVD, with less lung toxicity. This remains common British practice and is a perfectly defensible treatment. Brentuximab vedotin with AVD. ECHELON-1 randomised 1,334 patients with untreated stage III or IV disease to A+AVD or ABVD: two-year modified progression-free survival was 82.1 against 77.2 per cent (hazard ratio 0.77) and, at six years, overall survival was 93.9 against 89.4 per cent (hazard ratio 0.59). It is the only first-line trial in advanced Hodgkin lymphoma to show an overall survival advantage. The cost is peripheral neuropathy, which is commoner and more severe than with ABVD; in SWOG S1826 any-grade peripheral neuropathy was 54.2 per cent with brentuximab-AVD against 28.1 per cent with nivolumab-AVD. Growth-factor support is mandatory. In England, NICE TA1059 recommends brentuximab vedotin with doxorubicin, dacarbazine and vinblastine for untreated stage 3 or 4 CD30-positive Hodgkin lymphoma in adults, so this is the regimen that is funded first line; there is no NICE appraisal of nivolumab with AVD. Older and frail patients tolerate none of these well. Options are ABVD with bleomycin omitted, sequential brentuximab vedotin before and after AVD, or a reduced-intensity regimen, and the choice is made on comorbidity rather than on chronological age.
The ADC that made the modern field credible (2011), for Hodgkin lymphoma and CD30+ lymphomas.
The red chemotherapy drug from a soil bacterium that is still the backbone of treatment for sarcoma, lymphoma and breast cancer, limited by cumulative heart damage.
Bleomycin is the 'B' in BEP for testicular cancer and ABVD for Hodgkin lymphoma; its unique danger is scarring of the lungs, so lung function is monitored and it is often dropped when safe.
Vinblastine is the vinca alkaloid in ABVD, the standard Hodgkin lymphoma regimen, and was formerly in the cisplatin combinations that first cured testicular cancer.
Dacarbazine is an older chemotherapy infusion. It was the standard treatment for advanced melanoma for decades and is the D in the ABVD regimen that cures most Hodgkin lymphoma.
Injections of filgrastim or its long-acting form pegfilgrastim after chemotherapy make white cells recover faster, cutting the risk of life-threatening infections and allowing chemotherapy on schedule.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 91% | 82% |
| Febrile neutropenia · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 19% | 19% |
| Peripheral sensory neuropathy · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 65% | 10% |
| Vomiting · ECHELON-1, A+AVD arm | 33% | 3% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.