The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) to treat Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and a rare lymphoma known as systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL).
Lymphomas are cancers of the lymphatic system. Adcetris is an antibody-drug conjugate that combines an antibody and drug, allowing the antibody to direct the drug to a target on lymphoma cells known as CD30.
Adcetris is to be used in patients with HL whose disease has progressed after autologous stem cell transplant or after two prior chemotherapy treatments for those who cannot receive a transplant. Autologous stem cell transplant is a procedure using a patient’s own bone marrow that is designed to repair damaged bone marrow after the use of high chemotherapy doses. Adcetris may also be used in patients with ALCL whose disease has progressed after one prior chemotherapy treatment.
Adcetris is the first new FDA-approved treatment for HL since 1977 and the first specifically indicated to treat ALCL.
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