Dr. Kuruvilla on the Broad Utility of Pembrolizumab in Hodgkin Lymphoma

John Kuruvilla, MD, FRCPC, clinician investigator, Cancer Clinical Research Unit, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, discusses the broad utility of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in Hodgkin lymphoma.

At the 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program, findings from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-204 trial demonstrated a 35% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death with pembrolizumab compared with brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma who relapsed post-transplant or were ineligible for transplant.

Moreover, the progression-free survival benefit with pembrolizumab was observed across prespecified patient subgroups.

Biomarkers were not included in this study as there no well-defined predictive targets in Hodgkin lymphoma, explains Kuruvilla.

As such, pembrolizumab may broadly apply to patients in this population who fit the inclusion criteria and have relapsed following or who are ineligible for transplant, concludes Kuruvilla.