Tislelizumab Deemed an ‘Important Option’ for Relapsed/Refractory Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma

Tislelizumab can produce durable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), according to research presented at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2021 Virtual Congress.¹

Tislelizumab previously demonstrated activity in patients with relapsed/refractory cHL in a phase 2 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03209973).²

At EHA 2021, Yuqin Song, MD, PhD, of Beijing Cancer Hospital in China, presented 3-year follow-up data from the same study, which was a single-arm trial of tislelizumab monotherapy.

The trial included 70 cHL patients who had either not responded to autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) or were ASCT-ineligible. At baseline, the patients had a median age of 32.5 years (range, 18-69 years), 57.1% were men, and they had received a median of 3 prior lines of therapy.

Patients received tislelizumab at 200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks until progression, unacceptable toxicity, or the end of study.

The median follow-up was 33.8 months (range, 3.4-38.6). At that time, the overall response rate was 87.1%, and 67.1% of patients had a complete response. Eleven patients who had previously undergone ASCT achieved a complete response.

The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 31.5 months, the 24-month PFS was 55.4%, and the 36-month PFS was 40.8%.

The median overall survival (OS) was not reached, the 24-month OS was 93.9%, and the 36-month OS was 84.8%.

Grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events (AEs) occurred in 31.4% of patients, and immune-related AEs occurred in 45.7%. The most common of these were hypothyroidism (28.6%), skin reactions (8.6%), and pneumonitis (7.1%).

The most common treatment-emergent AEs (occurring in more than 20% of patients) were pyrexia, upper respiratory tract infection, hypothyroidism, weight increase, decrease in white blood cell count, and cough.

“In summary, with long-term follow-up, tislelizumab provided deep and durable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma,” Dr Song said. She added that tislelizumab “represents an important option” for this patient population.

Disclosures: This research was supported by BeiGene. The presenter declared no competing financial interests.

Reference

Song Y, Gao Q, Zhang H, et al. Tislelizumab (BGB-A317) for relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma: long-term follow-up efficacy and safety results from a phase 2 study. Paper presented at: European Hematology Association 2021 Virtual Congress; June 2021; Abstract S207.

Song Y, Gao Q, Zhang H, et al. Treatment of relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma with the anti-PD-1, tislelizumab: results of a phase 2, single-arm, multicenter study. Leukemia. 2020 Feb;34(2):533-542. doi: 10.1038/s41375-019-0545-2

This article originally appeared on Cancer Therapy Advisor