The role of response adapted therapy in the era of novel agents

Abstract

The optimal treatment of classic Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL) requires an individualized approach, with therapy guided by pretreatment clinical risk stratification and interim response assessment with positron emission tomography (PET). The overall goal is to achieve high cure rates while minimizing acute toxicity and late therapy-related effects. Interim PET-adapted strategies (iPET) were initially developed with traditional chemotherapy, reducing intensity after interim complete response and escalating treatment for patients with iPET+ disease. Recently, novel agents including brentuximab vedotin and the checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies (CPIs) pembrolizumab and nivolumab have been adopted into the front-line treatment of cHL, and PET-adapted approaches may be relevant for these drugs as well. In this review we discuss response-adapted strategies utilizing novel agents, consider challenges including indeterminate radiographic findings with CPIs, and address emerging techniques for response assessment including new PET-based imaging metrics and the role of circulating tumor DNA.