A new drug called brentuximab vedotin (BV) is the first new treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma in more than three decades. The FDA-approved drug doubled the amount of time that patients with Hodgkins lymphoma survived without any progression in their disease, a new study shows.
The large-scale trial of the new drug has proven that it can boost the survival rate of patients for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that usually attacks younger people. Mayo Clinic defines it as a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system, a part of the immune system.
The National Cancer Institute estimates that in 2011, there were 185,793 people living with Hodgkin lymphoma in the United States and the number of new cases of Hodgkin lymphoma was 2.7 per 100,000 men and women per year.
The study, published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology tested the drug among 329 patients who were at risk of relapse after a stem-cell transplant. After two years, it did not progress in 65% of the patients who took BV along with their treatments. Therefore, the two-year marker would signal the success of the treatment.
According to Craig Moskowitz of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, lead author of the study, "No medication available today has had such dramatic results." Now, the trial has reached third phase which is usually the last stage in incurring results for an experimental drug for safety issues. In time, it will already be available for patient use.
While the results are promising, physicians may never know if the drug is prolonging the lives of patients. This is according to Dr. Owen O'Connor, director of the Center for Lymphoid Malignancies at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. He explained that brentuximab is fast becoming standard care for all patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who've relapsed after stem cell transplant.
"So, a trial comparing the survival of patients who got the drug against those who did not might never be feasible, due to ethical concerns," he added.
The drug is marketed by Adcetris and was tested to 165 volunteers who received 16 cycles of the drug every three weeks after their stem-cell transplant. The other 164 patients received placebo, reported Khaleej Times.