Preliminary evidence of disease response to the pan deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (LBH589) in refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma.

There are few treatment options for patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) who relapse after conventional therapies. Panobinostat is an orally available pan deacetylase inhibitor with evidence of activity in myeloid malignancies and cutaneous T cell lymphoma. Thirteen HL patients were treated with escalating doses of this novel agent in a phase IA/II multicentre study. A computed tomography partial response was achieved in 5/13(38%), and a metabolic response by (18)F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography scanning in 7/12 (58%) evaluable patients. This report describes the preliminary evidence of anti-tumour activity seen in the early phase of this study, which recently closed to accrual.