Modern Therapy of Hematological Malignancies

Overview

Remarkable progress has been done during the last three decades in the therapy of hematological malignancies.It is now possible to cure significant number of patients by chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and stem cell transplantation.However, there is still a large group of patients and situations where our approaches are failing. It is evident that insome circumstance chemotherapy and radiotherapy get close to their limits. A short insight into the group of noveltherapeutic methods is given in this review. Such promising methods of treatment include the new chemotherapeuticdrugs, new molecules that specifically act on the level molecular mechanisms (STI 571, ATRA, arsenic trioxide,etc.), immunotherapy (monoclonal antibodies, vaccination strategy, exploration of dendritic cells etc.), gene therapyand innovations in stem cell transplantation (graft versus leukemia/lymphoma effect). The future treatment willinclude combination of standard or intensified chemo/radiotherapy and the new methods, which allow better controlof the disease.

Key words:
leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, chemotherapy, radiothera-py, gene therapy, transplantation.