Sequential high-dose chemotherapy is a

chemotherapy regimen A chemotherapy regimen is a regimen for chemotherapy, defining the drugs to be used, their dosage, the frequency and duration of treatments, and other considerations. In modern oncology, many regimens combine several chemotherapy drugs in combi ...

consisting of several (2 to 4) sequential monochemotherapies with only one chemotherapeutic agent per course. The idea behind this approach is that when using single-agent chemotherapy, the doctor can easily escalate the dose of the drug to the maximum tolerable dose by the patient, avoiding additive hematological toxicity from chemotherapeutic combinations, and thus improving efficacy. It is mostly used as consolidation therapy for relapsed or refractory

lymphoma Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). The name typically refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlarged lymph node ...

s and relapsed or refractory

Hodgkin lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

, after

DHAP Dhap is a market center in Mahakali Municipality in Darchula District in the Mahakali Zone of western Nepal. The formerly Village Development Committee was merged to form new municipality since 18 May 2014. At the time of the 2021 Nepal censu ...

induction. There is also an ongoing trial of this approach in

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...

.High Dose Sequential Therapy and Autologous Stem Cell Rescue for Multiple Myeloma
/ref>

Dosing regimen

Depending on the patient's performance status, his/her ability to tolerate chemotherapy, the type of lymphoma, the stage of disease and different prognostic factors, one or more courses of the full sequence can be omitted or dose reduced. After completion of the sequence, the patient will usually undergo pre-transplant conditioning chemotherapy regimen (such as BEAM) and then will get

autologous stem cell transplantation Autologous stem-cell transplantation (also called autogenous, autogenic, or autogenic stem-cell transplantation and abbreviated auto-SCT) is the autologous transplantation of stem cells—that is, transplantation in which stem cells ( undifferen ...

as the final consolidation.

References

{{reflist, 2 Chemotherapy regimens used in lymphoma Chemotherapy regimens used in multiple myeloma