Integrating the antibody-drug conjugate brentuximab vedotin into the front-line treatment of pediatric patients with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma “facilitated significant reduction in radiation exposure and yielded excellent outcomes,” Monika Metzger, MD, MSc, Director for the Central and South America Region, Global Pediatric Medicine Department, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, and colleagues reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.¹ Event-free survival was 97.4% at a median follow-up of 3.4 years, and overall survival was 98.7%.

In a Danish population-based study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Øvlisen et al found that parenthood rates in younger Hodgkin lymphoma survivors who did not experience early relapse were similar to those in the general population, but that use of assisted reproductive techniques prior to live births was more common among survivors.

In a prospective analysis from the phase III Lymphoma Study Association AHL2011 trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Demeestere et al found that patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma receiving a positron-emission tomography (PET)-adapted regimen had a reduced risk of gonadal dysfunction vs standard chemotherapy. The aim of this substudy was to investigate the benefit of this strategy in gonadal function and fertility in patients younger than age 45.

In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Alison J. Moskowitz, MD, and colleagues found that second-line therapy with pembrolizumab plus gemcitabine, vinorelbine, and liposomal doxorubicin in relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin lymphoma produced responses in all patients and complete response in 95%. After subsequent high-dose therapy/autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation in complete responders, all remained in remission at the time of this analysis.

In a prospective study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frank et al found that monitoring of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) improved detection of early relapse after axicabtagene ciloleucel infusion in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma.