The introduction and success of combination chemotherapy for treating various cancers has elicited the ever-growing complexity of cancer treatment regimens. Today, multidrug combinations with complex dosing parameters and sequencing have become normal. As a result, a nonformal jargon of acronyms emerged to ease the communication amongst patients and oncologists. This jargon can be a mix of generic, chemical, and brand names of antineoplastics.
Highlights:
What is combination chemotherapy?
Acronyms to represent combination chemotherapy regimen
1. What is chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy is a treatment in which a cancer patient receives drugs to kill the cancer cells flourishing in the body.
2. What is combination chemotherapy?
Cancer medications are most efficacious when allocating in combination. The motive behind giving combination therapy is to use drugs that act by different mechanisms to reduce the probability of development of resistant cancer cells.
3. Acronyms to represent combination chemotherapy regimen
1) 7+3
Drugs: Anthracycline (daunorubicin/idarubicin) or anthracenedione
(mitoxantrone)/cytarabine
Targeted cancer: Acute myeloid leukaemia.
Duration of treatment:
The combination is known as 7+3 because the drug cytarabine is given continuously for 7 days along with short infusions of anthracycline on every first day.
2) ABVD
Drugs: Doxorubicin (Adriamycin)/ bleomycin/vincristine/dacarbazine
Targeted cancer: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Duration of treatment:
ABVD chemotherapy is given as cycles of treatment i.e. a period of treatment succeeded by a period of rest that repeated constantly. Every cycle lasts for 4 weeks, chemotherapy gives on day 1 and 15. The cycles can be from two to eight.
3) AC
Drugs: Doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide
Targeted cancer: Breast cancer
Duration of treatment:
There are generally 4 to 6 cycles of this treatment, over 3-4 months. Both medications provided on the same day, every 3 weeks.
4) AI
Drugs: Doxorubicin/ifosfamide
Targeted cancer: soft tissue sarcoma
Duration of treatment:
There are various schedules through which this combination is given, depending upon patients’ condition.
5) BEACOPP
Drugs:Bleomycin/etoposide/doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide/vincristine (Oncovin)/procarbazine/ prednisone
Targeted cancer: Hodgkin lymphoma
Duration of treatment:
Each cycle of BEACOPP takes three (21 days) or two (14 days). You may have between 2 to 8 cycles of this treatment.
6) BEP
Drugs: Bleomycin/etoposide/cisplatin
Targeted cancer: Teratoma of the ovary (a rare type of ovarian cancer)
Duration of treatment:
The BEP chemotherapy cycles depend upon:
Whether cancer has spread and how well a patient is responding to BEP. Each treatment cycle lasts for 3 weeks. You might have between 2-4 cycles of treatment.
7) CAP
Drugs: Cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/cisplatin
Targeted cancer: Ovarian cancer
Duration of treatment:
CAP treatment is given every three weeks as a day case or over 24 hours.
8) CAPIRI
Drugs: Capecitabine/irinotecan
Targeted cancer: Colorectal cancer
Duration of treatment:
The cycles of treatment depend upon disease condition. Each cycle lasts for 21 days.
9) CAPOX
Drugs: Capecitabine/oxaliplatin
Targeted cancer: Bowel (colorectal) cancer
Duration of treatment:
Depending upon conditions, you may have 6 to 8 cycles and each lasts for 3 weeks.
10) CAV
Drugs: Cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine
Targeted cancer: small cell lung cancer.
Duration of treatment:
Patients may have between 6 to 8 cycles and each lasts for 3 weeks.
11) CHOP
Drugs: Cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine (Oncovin) /prednisone
Targeted cancer: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)
Duration of treatment:
patients may have 6-8 cycles of treatment on whole and each cycle lasts 3 weeks (21 days).
12) ChlVPP
Drugs: Chlorambucil/vinblastine/procarbazine/prednisone
Targeted cancer: Hodgkin lymphoma
Duration of treatment:
There are 6 to 8 cycles in total and each cycle lasts for 4 weeks (28 days).
13) CMF
Drugs: Cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/5-Fluorouracil
Targeted cancer: Breast cancer
Duration of treatment:
There are 4 to 6 treatment cycles and each lasts 4 weeks.
14) CODOX-M
Drugs: Cyclophsopahmide/vincristine/doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/
leucovorin/intrathecal cytarabine/intrathecal methotrexate
Targeted cancer: Burkitt lymphoma
Duration of treatment:
Repeat cycle for 21 days (3weeks) for 3 cycles.
15) CVP
Drugs: Cyclophosphamide/vincristine/prednisone
Targeted cancer: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Duration of treatment:
There are 6-8 treatment cycles of CVP and every cycle lasts 3 weeks.
16) DHAP
Drugs: Dexamethasone/high dose cytarabine/cisplatin
Targeted cancer: Relapse high-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma & Hodgkin lymphoma
Duration of treatment:
There are 2 to 6 cycles, each cycle lasts 3 weeks.
17) DVd
Drugs: Doxorubicin/ Bortezomib (Velcade)/dexamethasone
Targeted cancer: Multiple Myeloma
Duration of treatment:
Treatment cycles 1 – 8 are 21-day cycles, cycle 9-onwards are repeated every 28 days until disease progression.
18) ECF
Drugs: Epirubicin/cisplatin/5-Fluorouracil
Targeted cancer: Oesophageal (food pipe) cancer
Duration of treatment:
There might be 3-8 cycles of 21 days each.
19) ECX
Drugs: Epirubicin/cisplatin/capecitabine (Xeloda)
Targeted cancer: Esophageal (food pipe) cancer
Duration of treatment:
There might be 6 cycles of 21 days each.
20) ELF
Drugs: Epirubicin/leucovorin/5-Fluorouracil
Targeted drug: Stomach and oesophagal cancer
Duration of treatment:
There are upto 6 treatment cycles of ELF and each lasts for 4 weeks.
21) EOF
Drugs: Epirubicin/oxaliplatin/5-Fluorouracil
Targeted drug: Stomach and oesophagal cancer
Duration of treatment:
There are up to 8 treatment cycles of EOF and each lasts for 3 weeks.
22) EOX
Drugs: Epirubicin/oxaliplatin/capecitabine
Targeted drug: Stomach and oesophagal cancer
Duration of treatment:
There might be 6-8 cycles of 3 weeks each.
23) EP
Drugs: Etoposide/cisplatin
Targeted drug: Small cell lung cancer, germ cell cancers, cervix cancer
Duration of treatment:
The patient may have up to 6 cycles, each lasts for 3 weeks.
24) EPOCH-R
Drugs: Etoposide/prednisone/vincristine/cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/Rituximab
Targeted drug: B-cell and T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas
Duration of treatment:
The patient may have 2 to 6 cycles, each lasts for 3 weeks.
25) ESHAP
Drugs: Etoposide/methylprednisolone/cytarabine/cisplatin
Targeted drug: Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and myeloma
Duration of treatment:
The patient may have 1 to 6 cycles, each lasts for 3 weeks.
These are the acronyms from alphabet A to E. Hope you will get some ease in understanding the combinations regimen by exploring this article. For the next acronym update, keep in touch.
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