Peripheral T cell lymphoma: clinical utility of romidepsin

Correspondence: Jasmine Zain NYU Langone Medical Center, 160 East 34th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10016, USA Tel +1 212 731 6544 Fax +1 212 731 5540 Email jasmine.zain@nyumc.org Introduction: Direct therapeutic targets, such as aberrant tumor cell genes and tumor cell markers, have been the focus of cancer treatment for more than 50 years. The resulting damage to normal cells and emergence of drug-resistant tumor cells after exposure to conventional chemotherapy have led researchers to study indirect targets, like the tumor vasculature. A more recent indirect approach involves targeting the epigenetic modifiers, DNA methyltransferase and histone deacetylase. Histone deacetylase inhibitors have been shown to be active cytotoxic agents in T cell lymphoma. The current treatments approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for relapsed cutaneous T cell lymphoma are vorinostat and romidepsin. The diversity and rarity of peripheral T cell lymphomas present a challenge for effective treatment. With their poor overall survival rate, new targeted therapies need to be developed.