A Study of Brentuximab Vedotin Plus AVD in Hodgkin Lymphoma

Anna Sureda, MD, PhD, head of the clinical hematology service at the Institut Català d'Oncologia — Hospitalet de Llobregat in Barcelona, discusses the phase III ECHELON-1 study exploring brentuximab vedotin plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, dacarbazine (A+AVD) versus ABVD (adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) in patients with previously untreated stage III or IV Hodgkin lymphoma.

ABVD is the current standard of care for advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma, however, this treatment is not able to cure 100% of patients with this disease, Sureda says. Knowing the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin, a monoclonal antibody-drug conjugate, in the relapsed setting, the idea was to combine this agent with a modified version of ABVD, omitting bleomycin.

The primary objective of the study was modified progression-free survival (PFS). The study is positive in the sense that the modified PFS in the experimental arm was significantly better than in the ABVD arm, Sureda says.