An evaluation of brentuximab vedotin as a treatment option for stage III/IV Hodgkin lymphoma.

An evaluation of brentuximab vedotin as a treatment option for stage III/IV Hodgkin lymphoma. Expert Rev Hematol. 2019 Aug 21;: Authors: Choi Y, Diefenbach CS Abstract Introduction: Outcomes of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma are excellent, and the intent of frontline therapy for even advanced stage disease has been curative. This review summarizes the role of brentuximab vedotin in the upfront treatment of advanced stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma in the context of reducing therapy-related toxicity without compromising the high cure rate. Areas covered: Strategies to reduce bleomycin-induced lung toxicity include a response-adapted approach investigated in the RATHL study and a replacement of bleomycin with brentuximab vedotin in frontline chemotherapy regimens. In both studies, omission of bleomycin in the non-standard arms decreased the rate of pulmonary toxicity while maintaining high progression-free survival and overall survival rates. Expert opinion: The approval of A+AVD in North America offers a new bleomycin-free regimen for the treatment of advanced stage HL, but it must be balanced against a risk-adapted approach. Recently presented subset analyses raise a question about which patients benefit most from this therapy. PMID: 31432732 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Expert Review of Hematology - Category: Hematology Tags: Expert Rev Hematol Source Type: research