Efficacy of anti-PD1 re-treatment in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who relapsed after anti-PD1 discontinuation

Patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (R/R HL) experience high response rates upon anti-PD1 therapy. In these patients, there is limited data about the optimal duration of treatment and the risk of relapse after anti-PD1 discontinuation. We have previously reported the outcome of 11 patients with R/R HL who discontinued anti-PD1 therapy after achieving a complete response (CR) upon nivolumab1 . These patients experienced favorable outcome as only 2 of them had relapsed after a median follow-up of 21.2 months from discontinuation. Despite the low relapse rate observed in that study, physicians may be worried about the possibility to further rescue these heavily pre-treated patients in case of relapse after anti-PD1 discontinuation. Notably, it is still unknown whether these patients will remain sensitive to a 2nd course of anti-PD1.