Pembrolizumab Improves PFS in Hodgkin Lymphoma Compared With Brentuximab Vedotin

John Kuruvilla, MD, FRCPC, clinician investigator, Cancer Clinical Research Unit, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discussed the positive findings for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) compared with brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma in the KEYNOTE-204 study.

The primary end point of this phase 3 study was progression-free survival (PFS), which was met. Pembrolizumab demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement compared with brentuximab vedotin, says Kuruvilla. The median PFS for pembrolizumab was 13.2 months compared with 8.3 months with brentuximab vedotin.

What is interesting about this study is that it is both broad and focused in a way, Kuruvilla says. The standard for a long time was brentuximab vedotin based on a pivotal trial that enrolled patients with disease progression after transplant, but clinicians generalized these data to include patients who were ineligible for transplant as well. Brentuximab vedotin was well-established in this patient population as well, so these new data suggest that pembrolizumab is more favorable for that group of patients who weren’t included in the original pivotal study. In conclusion, Kuruvilla says pembrolizumab had superiority over patients who were ineligible for transplant as well.

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