Safety and Efficacy of Brentuximab Vedotin in the Treatment of Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is a B-cell-derived lymphoid malignancy with the most favorable prognosis among various adult malignancies. However, once it becomes refractory disease to chemotherapy or relapses after high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), it is difficult to manage with conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy. The introduction of brentuximab vedotin (BV) has changed the treatment landscape of cHL in the past decade. Several studies demonstrated high efficacy of BV monotherapy in heavily treated patients with cHL relapsed or refractory after HDC/ASCT. Recent studies also reported high efficacy of concurrent or sequential combination of BV and chemotherapy in patients with transplant-eligible relapsed/refractory cHL at the second-line setting. In addition, a randomized phase III trial ECHELON-1 reported a positive result of BV in combination with AVD (doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) in patients with newly diagnosed advanced-stage cHL. In this review, we summarize available data of BV for cHL and discuss the current and future role of BV in the management of cHL.