Early thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) reduction and response following panobinostat treatment in patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma following autologous stem cell transplant

Abstract

In a phase 2 trial of panobinostat in 129 patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma, exploratory analyses of chemokines and cytokines were prospectively performed in 109 patients to determine their association with clinical outcomes. Patients were categorized into two groups (reductions > median and reductions ≤ median) based on percentage change from baseline of log₁₀ transformed measurements. Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) was most strongly associated with clinical outcome. Early reduction of TARC was observed in responding patients, with the greatest reduction at cycle 1, day 15 (C1D15). Of 93 patients with C1D15 samples, there were three complete and 25 partial responses. The group with TARC reductions > median at C1D15 had more responders (18 [39%] vs. 10 [21%]), longer progression-free survival (10.6 vs. 4.9 months), shorter time to response and longer overall survival than the group with reductions ≤ median. This study is registered at www.ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00742027.

Keywords::

• Hodgkin lymphoma
• panobinostat
• TARC
• cytokines
• chemokines
• transforming growth factor-β

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Stefanie Sasse for assistance with the study.

Potential conflict of interest:

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal.

This study was supported by research funding from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation for clinical studies and medical editorial assistance. Peter J. Simon, PhD, a medical writer supported by funding from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, provided editorial assistance to the authors during preparation of this manuscript.