This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
KEYNOTE: Pembrolizumab shows activity in pre-treated Hodgkin’s lymphoma
SAN FRANCISCO — Immunotherapy with pembrolizumab was associated with an 86% clinical benefit rate in a cohort of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who had failed previous therapy, according to findings presented here.
Craig H. Moskowitz, MD, clinical director of the Division of Hematologic Oncology and Steven A. Greenberg Chair at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said that classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma may represent a uniquely vulnerable target for PD-1 blockade therapy. “Pembrolizumab has a high affinity for the PD‐1 receptor, with a dual ligand blockade of PD‐L1 and PD‐L2,” he said.
Craig H. Moskowitz
The current ongoing, multicenter, open-label, phase 1b study included 29 patients with relapsed or refractory classic HL, relapse from or failure to respond to brentuximab vedotin therapy (Adcetris, Seattle Genetics) and adequate performance status and organ function.
“By design, all patients previously failed brentuximab,” Moskowitz said. He added that 67% had failed prior autologous stem cell transplantation.
Key exclusion criteria included patients with autoimmune disease or interstitial lung disease.
Pembrolizumab (MK-3475, Merck) 10 mg/kg was administered intravenously every 2 weeks until confirmed tumor progression, excessive toxicity, or completion of 2 years of therapy, according to the results. “Pharmacokinetics support dosing every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks,” Moskowitz said.
Safety, tolerability and complete remission served as the primary outcome measures.
Results indicated a 21% complete response rate and a 66% overall response rate. Moskowitz also reported an 86% clinical benefit rate. “Almost all patients demonstrated some evidence of tumor shrinkage,” he said.
The median duration of response has not been reached, according to Moskowitz.
“A number of patients had stable disease,” he said. “I actually think stable disease is quite important in these checkpoint inhibitors.”
The adverse event profile indicated that grade 3 axillary pain, hypoxia, joint swelling and pneumonitis occurred in one patient each. “There were no grade 4 treatment-related adverse events and no single grade 3 events that occurred in more than one patient,” Moskowitz said.
For more information:
Moskowitz CW. Abstract #290. Presented at: ASH Annual Meeting and Exhibition; Dec. 6-9, 2014; San Francisco.
Disclosure: Moskowitz reports receiving research funding from Merck.
Perspective
Back to Top
This therapy is training the body to recognize foreign antibodies and react to them. A properly functioning immune system will target cancer cells before they can multiply. I see immunotherapy as a way forward to treating hematologic cancers.