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Nivolumab before and after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 52, pages 1054–1056 (2017)Cite this article

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Chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma achieves high rates of remission and long-term survival in a large proportion of patients.1 However, 10–15% of patients fail to achieve CR after initial chemotherapy and an additional 10–30% of patients will experience relapse of lymphoma after achieving complete response.2, 3, 4 Salvage chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT) is the standard therapeutic strategy for patients who have persistent or relapsed disease after front line therapy.5 Approximately 50% of patients ultimately relapse after AHCT. While there are no standard treatment approaches for subjects relapsing after AHCT, allogeneic HCT (allo-HCT), and more recently, novel immunotherapeutic agents, such as the CD30-targeting antibody drug immunoconjugate brentuximab vedotin (BV)6 and the anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody nivolumab, are considered acceptable salvage strategies.7 There are several reports on the safety of BV before and after AHCT8, 9 as well as before allo-HCT.10 On the other hand, there are limited data on the use of nivolumab before or after allo-HCT.

Given this paucity of reports we hereby summarize our experience using nivolumab before or after allo-HCT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Transplant Program, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

    F Covut, R Pinto, B W Cooper, B Tomlinson, L Metheny, E Malek, H M Lazarus, M de Lima & P F Caimi

  2. Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

    B W Cooper, B Tomlinson, L Metheny, E Malek, H M Lazarus, M de Lima & P F Caimi

Authors
  1. F Covut
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  2. R Pinto
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  3. B W Cooper
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  4. B Tomlinson
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  5. L Metheny
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  6. E Malek
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  7. H M Lazarus
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  8. M de Lima
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  9. P F Caimi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P F Caimi.

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Competing interests

Paolo F. Caimi serves as speaker for Celgene. Hillard M. Lazarus serves as speaker for Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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Covut, F., Pinto, R., Cooper, B. et al. Nivolumab before and after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 52, 1054–1056 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2017.44

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