Optimising salvage therapy for Hodgkin lymphoma: progress and future challenges

Despite clear advancements in the management of classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) over the past decade including better risk stratification, the usage of 18F-flurodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)-guided approaches and incorporation of novel agents, approximately one-third of the patients will relapse. Important themes have been recently explored in the first salvage setting including the recognition of the positive prognostic value of a negative pre-autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) FDG-PET response and the incorporation of novel agents such as brentuximab vedotin (BV) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) as salvage regimens to improve patient outcomes.