Dr. Garcia-Sanz on Combination Chemotherapy for Relapsed/Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma

Ramon Garcia-Sanz, MD, PhD, clinician, department of Hematology, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, discusses combination chemotherapy in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL).

Although most cases of HL are curable, there are 20% to 30% of patients who will not be cured after first-line therapy. Salvage chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) are the next steps for these patients, says Garcia-Sanz. Of those patients, around 70% will not achieve a complete response (CR), indicating a need for therapies in this setting.

In a study of patients with relapsed/refractory HL, brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) plus ESHAP (etoposide, methylprednisolone, cytarabine, and cisplatin) was shown to be safe and effective in remission induction prior to ASCT. Of 66 patients on the study, 60 achieved a sufficient response and moved onto transplant, and 71% of patients achieved a CR before transplant. After transplant, the response rate increased from 71% to 83%, translating to a 3-year progression-free survival of 71%.