The Evolving Role of Bendamustine in Lymphoid Malignancy: Understanding the Drug and Its Mechanism of Action—Introduction

Abstract

s ( t 1 h s c l B t Chemotherapy is the cornerstone of current treatment strategies for many hematologic malignancies, including most indolent B-cell alignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia CLL), follicular lymphoma (FL), as well as diffuse arge B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and mantle cell lymhoma (MCL). However, for most of these diseases, urrent therapies are rarely curative. The majority of atients will eventually relapse and require effective alvage therapies. Although great progress has been ade in the past 30 years with the introduction of ore effective chemotherapy regimens and the adition of biologic and targeted agents, there remains n unmet need for more effective and less toxic egimens that can provide durable long-term remisions and are effective in the relapsed and refractory etting. Standard front-line regimens used to treat FL, DLCL, CLL, and MCL predominantly consist of alkylating gents (eg, cyclophosphamide and chlorambucil), puine analogues (eg, fludarabine), anthracyclines (eg, oxorubicin), and vinca alkaloids (eg, vincristine), ost often in combination. Standard chemotherapy egimens include cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, incristine, and prednisone (CHOP); cyclophosph-