PD-1 blockade for untreated Hodgkin lymphoma

In this issue of Blood, Allen and colleagues present encouraging results from one of the first studies evaluating programmed death 1 (PD-1) blockade in the front-line setting for classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL).(1) In the study by Allen et al, patients with early unfavorable and advanced-stage cHL received 3 cycles of pembrolizumab followed by 4 to 6 cycles of doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD). They enrolled a considerably high number of patients with bulky disease (33% with >10-cm masses), and notable findings included complete response rate after single-agent pembrolizumab of 37%, with another 25% experiencing metabolic tumor volume reduction by >90% (see figure). Furthermore, toxicity was low, and all patients avoided radiation therapy.