Emerging drugs for T-cell lymphoma

T-cell lymphomas are rare and conventional treatments are not typically curative. Integration of biologic agents into routine practice is especially difficult given the breadth of emerging drugs currently or recently in trials.

This is an overview of the management of T-cell lymphoma as it stands today. The authors review clinically active biological and novel chemotherapeutic agents, which have a niche in current practice or are being actively developed and have a potential future role in the management of this challenging group of diseases. Clinical trial data were retrieved from journals and current major conference proceedings following interrogation of online search engines

Pralatrexate, the histone deacetylase inhibitors and brentuximab vedotin have reached the market and have provided new and useful treatment options. No novel agent has yet demonstrated a survival advantage for patients with this disease, or shown an ability to improve the low response rate to first-line chemotherapy that these diseases frequently exhibit. New randomized studies of these emerging drugs that may finally move the field forward with evidence of superiority from large Phase II and III trials currently open to accrual.