A trial looking at brentuximab for Hodgkin lymphoma (BREVITY)

Cancer type:

Blood cancers

Hodgkin lymphoma

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial was for older, frail people or those with other health conditions who couldn’t have chemotherapy.

More about this trial

Chemotherapy is the usual treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma. But some people are too unwell to have this type of treatment. For example, they might be too old or frail. Or they might have another medical condition which means they cannot have chemotherapy. Such as a heart or lung problem.

Brentuximab vedotin (also known as Adcetris or SGN-35) is a targeted cancer drug called a monoclonal antibody Open a glossary item

. These seek out cancer cells by looking for particular proteins. Brentuximab sticks to a protein called CD30 found on the surface of certain lymphoma cells. Brentuximab then delivers a drug to the cell, killing that cell.

We know from research that brentuximab works for people whose Hodgkin lymphoma came back after chemotherapy. In this study, researchers wanted to see how well it worked for people with Hodgkin lymphoma who couldn’t have chemotherapy.

The aims of this trial were to:

find out how well treatment worked
learn more about the side effects

Summary of results

The trial team found that brentuximab worked for people who weren’t well enough to have chemotherapy. But due to side effects, some had to have a lower dose or stop treatment altogether.

35 people took part. Everyone had brentuximab. They had an average of 4 cycles of treatment. Everyone had a PET scan Open a glossary item

after 4 cycles of treatment. The researchers looked at whose:

lymphoma went away completely (a complete metabolic response)
lymphoma went away completely or a little bit (a complete metabolic response or a partial metabolic response)

They found:

between 2 and 3 people out of 10 people (26%) had lymphoma that went away completely
just over 8 out of 10 people (84%) had lymphoma that went away completely or a little bit

Of the 35 people who took part:

14 needed to have a lower dose due to side effects
11 stopped treatment altogether due to side effects

Most of the side effects were mild. 26 people had at least 1 serious side effect. These included:

infection
a drop in the number of white blood cells
tingling or numbness in hands or feet

As expected, the side effects were worse in this group of people than in younger, fitter people.

The trial team followed everyone up. When this analysis was done in March 2017, the cancer had got worse in 28 people.

The trial team looked at how long people lived without any signs of their lymphoma getting worse (progression free survival). This was 7.4 months on average.

The trial team are looking at how long people lived overall (overall survival). They hope to have this information available at the end of 2019.

The trial team found that brentuximab vedotin worked in some people who weren’t fit enough for chemotherapy. But it didn’t work as well as they had hoped.

We have based this summary on information from the research team. 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 research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.