Stanford’s Innovative Blood Test Offers New Hope for Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients

Circulating tumor DNA predicts recurrence and splits disease into two subgroups in Stanford Medicine-led study of Hodgkin lymphoma. New drug targets or changes in treatments may reduce toxicity.

A Stanford Medicine-led, international study of hundreds of samples from patients with Hodgkin lymphoma has shown that levels of tumor DNA circulating in their blood can identify who is responding well to treatment and others who are likely to experience a disease recurrence — potentially letting some patients who are predicted to have favorable outcomes forgo lengthy treatment.

Surprisingly, the study also revealed that Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, can be divided into two groups, each with distinct genetic changes and slightly different prognoses. These changes hint at weaknesses in the cancer’s growth mechanisms that could be targeted by new, less toxic therapies.