The Food and Drug Administration has approved Merck's Keytruda for the treatment of children and adults with Hodgkin lymphoma or those have who have re-lapsed after three or more attempts at therapy.
“For the patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma who are not cured with existing treatments, there are limited options, and treating their disease becomes more challenging,” Dr. Craig Moskowitz, clinical director of the division of hematologic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in a press release. “This approval is an important step forward in treating these patients, who are generally young and have a particularly poor prognosis, and gives us the opportunity to help patients in their fight against this devastating disease."
Keytruda is given every three weeks until disease progression, up to 24 months in patients without the disease progressing or when the toxicity of the drug becomes intolerable, according to the release.
