A trial of panobinostat for Hodgkin lymphoma that has come back after a stem cell transplant or has not responded to treatment

Cancer type:

Hodgkin lymphoma

Lymphoma

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial looked at a drug called panobinostat for people with Hodgkin lymphoma. It was open to people whose Hodgkin lymphoma had come back after high dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, or had not responded to this treatment.

More about this trial

Doctors may use chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat Hodgkin lymphoma. Some people have high dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant. Researchers are trying to find treatments that will help people who have Hodgkin lymphoma that doesn’t respond or comes back after having this type of standard treatment.

Panobinostat is a drug that blocks enzymes Open a glossary item called deacetylases (pronounced dee-as-et-isle-azes). Cells need these enzymes to grow and divide. Blocking them may stop cancer growing.

Research in the laboratory had shown that panobinostat could stop Hodgkin lymphoma cells growing. The main aims of this trial were to

Find out if panobinostat helped people with Hodgkin lymphoma that had come back after a stem cell transplant
Learn more about the side effects

Summary of results

The trial team found that panobinostat could help people with Hodgkin lymphoma that had come back after a stem cell transplant.

This trial recruited 129 people. Everyone had panobinostat.

Of the 96 people whose Hodgkin lymphoma had responded

For 5 people there was no sign of their lymphoma (a complete response )
For 30 people their lymphoma had shrunk (a partial response )

The average amount of time it took for their lymphoma to come back or get worse was just under 6 months.

The most common side effects reported were

A drop in blood cells causing an increased risk of infection, bruising and bleeding
Diarrhoea or constipation
Feeling or being sick
Tiredness
Loss of appetite and taste changes
Weakness
Muscle spasms

The trial team concluded panobinostat can help people with Hodgkin lymphoma who had already had a stem cell transplant. They also found out more about the side effects of panobinostat.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.