Dr. Herrera on Next Steps of Drug Combinations for Hodgkin Lymphoma

Alex Herrera, MD, assistant professor, Department of Hematology and Hematologic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope, discusses next steps for a phase I/II study of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.

The next steps concerning this study are to combine the drugs, brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab, on the first day of treatment to see if it changes the rate of infusion reactions. All of the infusion reactions were mild and manageable and any interruptions of the drug were not permanent, Herrera explains.

The goal is to enroll more patients to gather additional information about the effectiveness of these drugs, but also to limit infusion-related reactions by changing how the drugs are given, Herrera says.