Nivolumab plus chemotherapy yields 92% survival rate for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma
Advanced Hodgkin lymphoma patients who received chemotherapy alongside Opdivo® (nivolumab) had a 92% survival rate and fewer side effects, indicating this treatment should become standard therapy.
A Phase III randomized clinical trial known as S1826 conducted by researchers across the USA and Canada, demonstrated that after 2 years of follow-up, 92% of advanced Hodgkin lymphoma patients given chemotherapy and nivolumab survived and had no progression of their disease. Patients undergoing this treatment also experienced fewer side effects and adverse events, such as second cancers or heart and lung conditions. Should this become the standard therapy, advanced Hodgkin lymphoma patients would not only have higher survival rates but also a better quality of life following treatment.
Hodgkin lymphoma predominately effects young individuals. As the standard treatment is chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy for the youngest patients, 80% of patients survive but may experience long-term side effects.
“The 20% who are not cured have a long road ahead,” study lead Jonathan Friedberg (University of Rochester Medical Center, NY, USA) commented, “The goal of this study was to improve the cure rate while also minimizing side effects and long-term toxicities—and that’s what makes this an unprecedented clinical trial.”
The study involved almost 1,000 patients at hundreds of cancer clinics and academic institutions across the USA. The advanced Hodgkin lymphoma patients enrolled had a median age of 30. The participants were diverse, with one-third being pediatric patients as young as 12, 10% older than 60 and 25% from under-represented groups.
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Half of the patients in the study were given the current standard therapy, which consists of chemotherapy and a drug brentuximab vedotin. The other half of patients were administered chemotherapy alongside nivolumab, which targets a genetic change common in Hodgkin lymphoma.
After 2 years of follow-up, 92% of those receiving immunotherapy survived and saw no progression in their disease. In the standard care group, only 83% survived. Not only did the survival rate improve with immunotherapy but there were also fewer side effects and adverse events.
Last year, the preliminary 1-year data was deemed to be so strong that the NCI ordered the study to stop early, to facilitate a faster review by the US FDA. The authors note that these positive 2-year results further support nivolumab becoming standard treatment for Stage 3 or 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.