From Transplant to Tablets: A paradigm shift in Oncology

Over the past few years, the survival rate for all cancers has improved considerably.1 The improvement has been ascribed to a combination of early detection and better treatment strategies and modalities. With the advent of systemic treatment, more and more cancers are being cured, whether they were seemingly localised, or even metastatic at presentation. The improvement in survival has been for most of the part in small incremental gains; however, there have also been some quantum leaps.A glance at the last half century reveals that by 1961, with the advent of combination chemotherapy including nitrogen mustard compounds, more than 60% patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) could be cured.2 This outcome was improved further by using non-nitrogen mustard combination chemotherapy, which not only improved the chances of survival by almost 10%, but also significantly reduced the long-term toxic effects, such as infertility and secondary cancers.3 Today, 80–90% of the patients diagnosed to have HL are cured of their illness