BEACOPP


BEACOPP is a chemotherapy regimen for treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma developed by the German Hodgkin Study Group used for patients in Stages > II or early with unfavorable risk factors.
Patients typically receive treatment in cycles of 21 days with no drugs given on days 15–21.
There also exists a more intensive regimen with cycles of 14 days. Usually a course of BEACOPP therapy consists of four, sometimes six to eight cycles, or in combination with ABVD.
In some countries BEACOPP still is experimental, in others it is a standard therapy. In the United States, ABVD is generally given instead, because BEACOPP is perceived by practicing oncologists to have the potential to induce more secondary neoplasias. However, the final results from the GHSG HD14 trial indicate that "there
were no overall differences in treatment-related mortality or secondary malignancies" of BEACOPP relative to ABVD.
Oncologists in the US have also used the BEACOPP regimen relatively less for cost reasons:
However, BEACOPP delivers approximately 7% points success relative to ABVD for early unfavorable Hodgkin's disease and 12% points greater success relative to ABVD for advanced Hodgkin's disease as measured by seven-year freedom from treatment failure.
Predecessors of BEACOPP were COPP and MOPP.

Dosing regimen

DrugBase BEACOPPDose-Escalated BEACOPPMethodCycle Day
'leomycin10 mg/m210 mg/m2i.v. pushday 8
'toposide100 mg/m2200 mg/m2i.v. infusionday 1–3
'driamycin 25 mg/m235 mg/m2i.v. pushday 1
'yclophosphamide650 mg/m21250 mg/m2i.v. infusionday 1
'ncovin=Vincristine1.4 mg/m2 1.4 mg/m2 i.v. infusionday 8
'rocarbazine100 mg/m2100 mg/m2orallyday 1–7
rednisone40 mg/m240 mg/m2orallyday 1–14