Smart salvage treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma

In this issue of Blood, Mei et al describe the results of treating relapsed or refractory (RR) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) with the anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody nivolumab, that show a high response rate to antibody monotherapy.(1) A response-adapted approach was used to determine whether patients proceeded to high-dose consolidation therapy (HDCT) after treatment with antibody alone or received additional salvage chemotherapy. The proportion of patients who remained free from recurrence was high, so this may become an attractive option for second-line therapy.

Automated summary

The study shows that treating relapsed or refractory HL with PD-1 antibody nivolumab has a high response rate, making it an attractive option for second-line therapy.