What drug can effecively be substituted for bleomycinin Hodgkin's chemotherapy/

Bleomycin falls into the anti-tumor antibiotic class- when it gets into the body it causes strands within the DNA of a cell to break, preventing it from dividing and leading to cell death. It does this to cancer cells and healthy cells. In a combination chemo regimen like ABVD, each drug attacks a cell's ability to divide in different ways; it's like bringing a knife, a stun gun, a baseball bat and some brass knuckles to a fight, but while that analogy probably lends itself to imagining another drug like bleomycin being introduced, it's not that easy. More likely a patient who's prone to pulmonary toxicity would be closely monitored on bleomycin, since that's a major side effect.

the bleomycin had to be stopped midway of my abvd chemo because it was damaging my lungs I do wonder if that will give me a greater chance for a relaspe

Bleomycin's propensity for pulmonary toxicity, right there. I'm sorry to read about that, DaisyDeb. How many cycles of ABVD did you have and what was your initial Hodgkin's diagnosis? I ask because a large recent study showed that 2 cycles of ABVD for HL patients with stage I or II diagnoses was just as effective as 4 cycles of ABVD. The same was true for radiation. My greater point is to suggest that more than likely the absence of bleomycin from what, half your therapy, won't affect your chances for relapse.

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY I DO BELIEVE I HAD AT LEAST TWO CYCLES OF CHEMO BEFORE STOPPING THE BLEOMYCIN.

OK well according to a soon to be published study by the German Hodgkin's Study Group, one of the most respected HL research groups in the world, for people with favorable early HL diagnoses (stages I-II), there is almost no difference in the success rate of treatment between 2 x ABVD and 4 x ABVD. The only differences? The people who received less chemo suffered less toxic events (like leukopenia) and fewer side effects (fewer lost their hair). These patients also received radiation, I don't know if you did or not.

No I did not do radiation because my lungs were damaged from the Bleomycin. So that does cocern me about a relaspe.

I understand your concerns, and I don't think there's much question that the addition of radiation to early stage HL treatment boosts the cure rate very high, but even without it, and even without 4 cycles of chemo I would bet that you're still looking at a very high cure rate. In fact, while you did suffer some lung damage from the amount of treatment you received, that same amount more than likely puts you at a much lower risk of developing a secondary cancer later in life, either an NHL or leukemia.