News

ALLG trial participant and consumer representative, Emma Priest, recently featured in the Herald Sun in an article titled “Melbourne nurse Emma Priest’s battle to beat cancer in a clinical trial.”

Emma, a nurse at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, was diagnosed with Advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma in May 2019 after experiencing a range of symptoms including night sweats and a low-grade fever. Her doctor, ALLG member haematologist Associate Professor Matthew Ku, told her about the opportunity to participate in the international HD10 clinical trial which was using a new treatment combination, BrECADD, with better survival results and less side effects.

Emma explained, “Being on this trial gave me an opportunity to receive treatment that offered the same success rate as standard treatment but with less side effects. I had a dedicated care team, was reviewed more frequently and more in depth, and I had a point of contact available for any questions or concerns.”

It has been five years since Emma finished her treatment in the HD10 clinical trial and she has passed five years in remission, and is now considered cured of her Hodgkin lymphoma.

“I am immensely grateful for the trial and to have been able to work with clinicians who came up with ideas of how diseases should be treated,” said Emma.

Read the Herald Sun article here: https://tinyurl.com/46w5p2ac (A subscription may be required to access the full article).

Emma’s story also featured in our ALLG News Edition 5: https://tinyurl.com/mzhwz5n4

The HD10 Clinical Trial

Patient outcomes of an international clinical trial for Advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, published recently in The Lancet show “the best results we have ever seen in younger patients from 18 to 60 years” according to the trial’s Australian lead researcher, ALLG member Professor Mark Hertzberg AM.

Advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma, or Hodgkin Disease (HD), often shortens life expectancy and involves very intensive toxic therapies that can incur major side-effects, including infertility. The GHSG HD21 / ALLG HD10 trial outcomes set a new benchmark for the primary cure rate in this disease.

With superior survival results, minimal side-effects and no known impact on fertility, the clinical trial identified effective first-line treatments for the disease and prevented toxic side effects but maintained the effect in eliminating cancer cells. The trial demonstrated that individualised treatment with PET2-guided BrECADD is now the most effective therapy currently available for Advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma.

Professor Hertzberg, a haematologist at Prince of Wales Hospital and ALLG Life Member, was a co-author on The Lancet publication and served as Chief Investigator for the ALLG HD10; the Australian and New Zealand arm of this global trial initiated by the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) HD21. It is through such ALLG international blood cancer trial collaborations that Australian and New Zealand patients can participate in innovative global trials for better treatments.

“Analysis of this study confirmed that, at four years, 94.3% of BrECADD-treated patients remain free of disease recurrence,” Prof Hertzberg explained.

“For patients who are PET-negative after 2 cycles [no demonstrable disease can be seen] this rises to 96.8% of patients who remain free of progression.

“The superior outcomes of the GHSG HD21 / ALLG HD10 clinical trial will change how Hodgkin lymphoma is treated in many countries around the world.”