Response to Brentuximab Vedotin by CD30 Expression in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Background: The safety and efficacy of brentuximab vedotin (BV), an antibody-drug conjugate directed to the CD30 antigen, has been assessed in several trials in patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), or B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The objective of this research was to examine the relationship between CD30 expression level and clinical response to BV.

Patients and methods: We analyzed response in patients treated with BV monotherapy in 5 prospective clinical studies in relapsed or refractory PTCL, CTCL, or B-cell NHL. CD30 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using the Ber H2 antibody for 275 patients.

Results: Across all 5 studies, 140 (50.9%) patients had tumors with CD30 expression <10%, including 60 (21.8%) with undetectable CD30 by IHC. No significant differences were observed for any study in overall response rates between patients with CD30 expression ≥10% or <10%. Median duration of response was also similar in the CD30 ≥10% and <10% groups for all studies.

Conclusions: In this analysis of studies across a range of CD30-expressing lymphomas, CD30 expression alone, as measured by standard IHC, does not predict clinical benefit from BV, making the determination of a threshold level of expression uncertain.