CANCER DIGEST – July 16, 2022 – Almost 94 percent of Hodgkin Lymphoma patients given the drug brentuximab vedotin in addition to standard chemotherapy survived 6 years compared to 89.4 percent of those given the standard therapy, a new Mayo Clinic study shows.
The results were presented by Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago in June and published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Our randomized study showed that the addition of an antibody drug conjugate, brentuximab vedotin, to standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma improved overall survival for patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma, when compared to patients who received standard chemotherapy alone,” Dr. Ansell said in a press release.
In the study 664 patients with advanced (stage 3 or 4) Hodgkin Lymphoma were assigned to receive the brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy and 670 received the standard combination chemotherapy regimen of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine.
Brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS®) is an engineered drug called an antibody conjugate. It combines an antibody that specifically binds to certain types of cells including cancer cells with a drug that kills the cells the antibody binds to.
After following patients for a median of six years, 39 patients in the brentuximab vedotin group had died compared to 64 patients in the standard therapy group. The overall survival for the brentuximab group was 93.9 percent compared to 89.4 percent of the standard therapy group. In addition, fewer patients in the brentuximab group needed additional therapy after the initial regimen had been administered.
The study also evaluated toxic side effects of the brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy and found that patients experienced neuropathy, or tingling and numbness often felt in the feet and hands, that resolved over time.
Hodgkin lymphoma is cancer of the lymph system, part of the body’s immune system. It is most common in early adulthood (age 20-29) and in older adults (age 65 and older). In the US an estimated 8,500 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma each year. Once a uniformly fatal disease, thanks to advances in treatment it is now largely curable, even in an advanced stage, in the great majority of patients. The focus of further research in this disease has been on improving cure rates while reducing toxic side effects.
Sources: Mayo Clinic press release and New England Journal of Medicine
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