EBMT 2017 | Reinforcing transplantation with consolidation therapy in Hodgkin lymphoma

Anna Sureda, MD, PhD, from the Catalan Institute of Oncology, Duran I Reynals Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, discusses brentuximab vedotin consolidation therapy after autologous stem cell transplantation in Hodgkin lymphoma at the 2017 annual meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) in Marseille, France. She explains that Hodgkin lymphoma is a hematological malignancy highly curable with first-line chemotherapy, however a small subgroup of patients are primary refractory or relapse after conventional chemotherapy. If these patients achieve a second complete remission, or have chemosensitive disease, they are considered for an autologous stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, the possibilities for cure with transplantation are not the same for all patients, as this can be influenced by a number of factors. She focuses on the possibility of using brentuximab vedotin, a monoclonal antibody drug conjugate, as consolidation therapy to decrease the relapse rate after the autologous stem cell transplant in patients with adverse prognostic features. Dr Sureda introduces the Phase III AETHERA trial (NCT01100502), which randomizes patients to receive brentuximab vedotin consolidation therapy or placebo. Progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly improved in patients receiving brentuximab vedotin consolidation therapy, both in the first analysis and at the three-year follow up. According to Dr Sureda, this indicates that for patients with high risk of relapse after transplantation, consolidation strategies with brentuximab vedotin are able to add around 20% to the PFS.