Five-year follow-up of KEYNOTE-087: pembrolizumab monotherapy for relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma

Introduction: Prognosis remains poor for patients (pts) with R/R cHL who relapse after or are ineligible for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT). Programmed death 1 (PD-1) inhibitors are an effective therapeutic option for such pts. Previous analyses from the phase 2 KEYNOTE-087 (NCT02453594) trial demonstrated that monotherapy with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (pembro) had effective antitumor activity and acceptable safety in pts with R/R cHL, leading to FDA approval for adult and pediatric pts with R/R cHL who relapsed after ≥3 prior lines of therapy. However, durability of response after pembro, its relationship with response depth, and safety of treatment discontinuation for pts achieving complete response (CR) remain salient clinical questions. We present efficacy and safety from KEYNOTE-087 after ~5 y of follow-up.