The Phase 3 Study ECHELON-1 Evaluating Brentuximab Vedotin in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Hodgkin Lymphoma Leaves Important Questions Unanswered

摘要

In 2010, the ( ) published phase I results of brentuximab vedotin (BV), an antibody-drug conjugate targeting CD30. After decades of standstill in the commercial development of new drugs in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), this pioneering innovation opened up new options in this malignancy affecting mainly young adults. Phase II results of BV in relapsed or refractory (r/r) classical HL (cHL) then revealed an exceptional overall response rate of 75%, which led to approval. This was the first study reporting only positron emission tomography (PET)-based response rates, which were not comparable to results from all previously published studies using computed tomography (CT)-based response assessment. The more relevant progression-free survival (PFS) was less impressive with a median of 5.6 months. Subsequently, BV has been widely used as “bridge-to-transplant” for r/r HL patients. A phase 3 study then proved the activity of single-agent BV as consolidation after high-dose chemotherapy. In this setting, cHL patients treated with BV for 1 year had a significantly better outcome than patients in the placebo control arm. Accordingly, BV has been approved for relapsed cHL patients based on trials without any active comparator.