Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Hodgkin Lymphoma: An Evolving Paradigm

Publication date: Available online 31 March 2018 Source:Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia Author(s): Steven M. Bair, Anthony Mato, Jakub Svoboda Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is one of the most common lymphomas in the Western world. Though the majority of patients are cured with standard frontline therapy, up to 20% of patients will have relapsed or refractory disease. Though the conventional approach to treatment has consisted of chemotherapy, radiation, and for those that relapse, autologous or allogeneic transplantation, newer approaches have become available in recent years, including immunoconjugates and checkpoint inhibitors. These approaches have demonstrated significant efficacy in clinical trials and may be associated with fewer long-term toxicities compared to conventional therapies. This review will discuss the biology of cHL as it pertains to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and then review the existing clinical trial results of several emerging immunotherapies in this context, including immune checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive cellular therapy. Finally, several clinical practice issues pertaining to the use of immunotherapies will be discussed.
Source: Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research