Anas Younes, MD

Anas Younes, MD, Chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, commented on the brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris)/nivolumab (Opdivo) combination studies, noting that complete response rates of 60% are “impressive.”

“It seems that in the pretransplant setting, the complete response rate is higher with the combination than you would expect with each agent alone. As many patients subsequently received stem cell transplant, it remains to be seen whether this chemotherapy-free salvage regimen will impact the outcome of the transplant. So, long-term follow-up will be needed to better assess this treatment strategy. In the relapsed posttransplant setting, the combination is also effective, but again, long-term follow-up will be needed.” He added, “in the posttransplant setting, it would be more ideal to compare the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin with the doublet in a randomized trial.” ■

Disclosure: Dr. Younes has received honoraria from Seattle Genetics and BMS.