Pembrolizumab in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma: 2-year follow-up of KEYNOTE-087

Programmed death-1 inhibitors are approved for patients with relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin lymphoma (RRcHL). We present the 2-year follow-up of the phase 2 KEYNOTE-087 study of pembrolizumab in 210 patients, based on HL progression after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) and subsequent brentuximab vedotin (BV; cohort 1); salvage chemotherapy and BV, with ineligibility for SCT owing to chemorefractory disease (cohort 2); and progression after SCT without BV (cohort 3). With a median follow-up of 27.6 months, the objective response rate (ORR) by blinded independent central review was 71.9% (95% CI, 65.3-77.9), the complete response rate (CRR) was 27.6%, and the partial response (PR) rate was 44.3%. Median duration of response was 16.5months (range, 0.0+ to 27.0+ [+, no progressive disease at last assessment]) in all patients, 22.1months in cohort 1, 11.1 months in cohort 2, and 24.4 months in cohort 3. Median progression-free survival was not reached in all patients with CR: 13.8 months (95% CI, 12.0-22.1) for patients with PR and 10.9 months (95% CI, 5.6-11.1) for patients with stable disease. Median overall survival was not reached in all patients or in any cohort. Treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) of any grade occurred in 153 (72.9%) patients; grades 3 and 4 occurred in 25 (12.0%) patients; none resulted in death. Results confirmed effective antitumor activity, durability of response, and manageable safety of pembrolizumab monotherapy in RRcHL, regardless of prior treatment and including chemoresistant cHL.