We aim to evaluate the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin (BV) combined with gemcitabine followed by BV maintenance in relapsed or refractory (R/R) peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). Patients (pts) with at least 5% CD30-positive cells by immunohistochemistry received 4 GBV induction (28d) cycles of gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2 (d1;d15) plus BV 1.8 mg/kg (d8) followed in responding pts by up to 12 BV maintenance (21d) cycles. Primary end point was overall response rate (ORR) after 4 induction cycles by CT-scan-based Lugano criteria. Of the 71 enrolled pts (median age of 66 years), 80.3% had received 1 prior line, 60.6% were refractory. The diagnoses per pathology central review were TFHL (47.9%), ALCL, ALK- (19.7%) and ALK+ (7%), PTCL-NOS (12.7%) and other entities (12.7%). In the intention-to-treat analysis, ORR was 46.5% with 19.7% complete response. Twenty-eight pts received maintenance. Grade 3-4 adverse events reported in ≥10% of pts during induction comprised: of neutropenia (55%), thrombocytopenia (14%), anemia (21%), infection (14%); during maintenance comprised of neutropenia (39%), thrombocytopenia (21%) and peripheral neuropathy (14%). With a median follow-up of 32.6 months, the median duration of response (DOR), progression-free (PFS) and overall survival were 15.8, 4.5 and 12.9 months, respectively. Efficacy, higher in ALCL, was present in the TFHL and PTCL-NOS group with and ORR, CR, PFS and DOR of 37.2%, 18.6%, 4 and 12.5 months, respectively. A negative association of high baseline soluble CD30 on both response and survival was found, which in ad hoc analysis appeared highly relevant in TFHL and PTCL-NOS patients. EudraCT 2017-000409-1 and NCT03496779
Tournilhac et al. (Mon,) studied this question.