This podcast episode was recorded live by Oncology Data Advisor and ConveyMED at the 2022 ASH Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Oncology Data Advisor: Welcome to Oncology Data Advisor. Today we're at the ASH Annual Meeting, and I'm here with Dr. Yimer, who is here to talk about his brentuximab vedotin study for advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma. Thanks so much for joining today.

Habte Yimer, MD: Thank you for inviting me.

Oncology Data Advisor: So, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself and about what you do?

Dr. Yimer: My name is Habte Yimer, and I'm with Texas Oncology. I've been with Texas Oncology for over 10 years. I'm stationed in Tyler, Texas, and my primary focus is the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. I'm the principal investigator for most of the hematology trials at our center.

Oncology Data Advisor: Great. Would you like to tell us about this study of brentuximab that was just presented this week?

Dr. Yimer: Happy to do that. The SGN35-027 study is actually a multipart study. It has A, B, C, and D parts, but we participated in the B part of the study. It is an open-label, multicenter, phase 2 trial assessing the role of brentuximab and the immunotherapy nivolumab, adding that to two of the chemotherapies that we traditionally use in ABVD (doxorubicin/bleomycin/vinblastine/dacarbazine). Those two are doxorubicin and dacarbazine.

Earlier, data has been presented in prior studies in regard to efficacy. What we presented here is an updated efficacy and safety analysis at about a 15-month follow-up timeframe. When you look at the baseline characteristics of the patients, most of them are advanced stage III or stage IV patients, and there were a few stage I or II with bulky medicinal lymph node included into the study. Most of them are Caucasian, unfortunately. We're trying to recruit more African Americans; we haven't done that here. Most of the patients were a median age around 35.

The patients were treated in a standard schedule—Day 1 and Day 15 of 20-day cycles for a total of 12 cycles. In this presentation, the estimated progression-free survival at 12 months was presented, and it was around 93%. There were four patients who had progressed at the time of follow-up, and one patient has died because of progression related to disease.

Oncology Data Advisor: Thank you. What are the next steps for this trial?

Dr. Yimer: Well, as you know, this is a phase 2 study, which did continue to show promising results and a promising safety profile. I believe it needs to be investigated in a randomized study comparing it with the standard arm. It could be ABVD; it might change soon, so that's tricky. The standard might change into brentuximab with AVD (doxorubicin/vinblastine/dacarbazine), so whether that needs to be the control arm, or whether it should be ABVD, would be determined in the future. But the next part will be to do a randomized study to see whether it's better or not.

Oncology Data Advisor: Great. Well, thanks much for talking to us about this.

Dr. Yimer: All right, thank you.

Thank you for listening to this podcast, recorded live at the 2022 ASH Annual Meeting by Oncology Data Advisor and ConveyMED. For more expert perspectives on the latest in cancer research and treatment, be sure to subscribe to the podcast at conveymed.io and OncData.com. Don't forget to follow us on social media for news, exclusive interviews, and more.

About Dr. Yimer

Habte Yimer, MD, is a Hematologist and Medical Oncologist at Texas Oncology in Tyler, Texas. He also serves as a Chairman in the Hematology/Oncology Department at Christus Trinity Mother Francis Hospital and as a member of the US Oncology Research Executive Council. Dr. Yimer's research focuses on the development of novel therapeutic strategies for hematologic malignancies, including lymphomas, leukemias, and multiple myeloma.

For More Information

Transcript edited for clarity. Any views expressed above are the speaker's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Oncology Data Advisor.