[Classic Hodgkin lymphoma]

Classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is one of the common subtypes of malignant lymphoma in Western countries. Although patients with HL showed unsatisfactory results in the 1960s, the clinical development in radiotherapy and chemotherapy based on several clinical trials over the last 50 years has made cHL a curable disease with a favorable outcome. As a result, late-onset treatment-related toxicities such as second primary malignancies and cardiac events are thought to be a significant issue especially in early-stage patients. To minimize the toxic effects while maximizing the antitumor efficacy, several clinical trials to evaluate response-adapted strategies using interim PET scans and novel agents, such as brentuximab vedotin (BV) and/or immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) are currently underway. In this review, the author summarizes currently available data on PET-adapted and BV and/or ICI-containing therapies for untreated cHL, and discusses their future prospects in cHL treatment.