Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses the CheckMate 039 trial of nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab for patients with various B-cell malignancies, focusing on Hodgkin lymphoma (NCT01592370). Prof. Ansell explains that clinical trials with PD-1 blockade have proven very promising and they have been trying to build on these results by adding a second immune checkpoint agent called ipilimumab. Ipilimumab blocks CTLA-4 and the idea is to employ two different mechanisms that keep a T-cell activated. In Hodgkin lymphoma patients, the response rate was 74% even though many of these patients were heavily pre-treated. Further, the combination was well-tolerated. Recorded at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, held in San Diego, CA.