Seattle Genetics, Takeda Report Positive Adcetris Data In Lymphoma Studies
By Cyndi Root
Seattle Genetics and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company report positive results from Adcetris studies to treat lymphoma. The companies announced the findings in press releases, stating that the data is being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Francisco, CA. Dirk Huebner, MD, Senior Medical Director of Takeda’s Oncology Therapeutic Area Unit, said, “The data estimate that more than 60 percent of the relapsed or refractory ALCL patients treated with Adcetris in this study are alive at four years, which may positively redefine outcome expectations in this difficult to treat cancer. The fact that a third of all patients treated in the trial remain in complete remission with no evidence of disease after a median follow up of 46 months suggests the difference Adcetris can make in this disease.”
Adcetris
Takeda and Seattle Genetics are jointly developing Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), an antibody drug conjugate (ADC). The agent uses Seattle Genetic’s proprietary technology to attach an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody to a protease-cleavable linker. The agent is stable in the bloodstream until it releases the payload into CD30-expressing tumor cells. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the agent under accelerated review for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients after failure of autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) or failure of two multi-agent chemotherapy regimens.
Adcetris Post-ASCT Results
Seattle Genetics and Takeda report that HL patients at risk of relapse following ASCT received Adcetris and experienced a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) compared to placebo patients. Data from the AETHERA trial is “compelling,” according to Michael Vasconcelles, MD, from Takeda. He said Takeda and Seattle Genetics intend to explore CD30-targeting in Phase 3 trials (ECHELON-1 and ECHELON-2) in HL and mature T-cell lymphomas.
Adcetris in Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma
The two companies also announced results from a Phase 2 study of Adcetris in relapsed or refractory systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Investigators followed the participants and measured the four-year overall survival (OS) data. When patients were evaluated at the median 46 months, 64 percent survived. According to Seattle Genetics, patients with relapsed T-cell lymphoma usually have a median overall survival of 5.5 months.