Histone deacetylase inhibitors in lymphoma

Although many advances have been made in the treatment of lymphoma in the past decade, the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory disease remains challenging. Only a fraction of patients will be cured with salvage therapy and transplantation. For those patients that are either ineligible or relapse after transplant, the treatment options are limited. This illustrates the need for new drugs and novel treatment strategies. This review will focus on the emerging role of histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) in patients with relapsed lymphoma.

Several HDACis have been evaluated in relapsed and refractory Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma showing promising activity in both. Specifically, vorinostat and romidepsin have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for patients with relapsed or refractory cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Several other HDACis have shown very promising activity in Hodgkin lymphoma including panobinostat, entinostat and mocetinostat.

With the limited options available for lymphoma patients in the relapsed and refractory setting, the efficacy demonstrated by HDACis in this patient population is exciting and much needed and will hopefully prompt further investigation into additional agents and into the combination with HDACis.