Adcetris

<p>Adcetris is a cancer medicine used to treat adults with certain lymphomas (cancers of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system). It is used when the cancer cells have a protein called CD30 on their surface (CD30-positive).</p><p>For Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL), it is given:</p><ul><li>together with doxorubicin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (other cancer medicines) in patients whose cancer is advanced (stage III or IV disease) and has not been treated before;</li><li>together with etoposide, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, dacarbazine (other cancer medicines) and dexamethasone (a corticosteroid) in patients whose cancer is advanced (stage IIB, stage III or stage IV) and has not been treated before;</li><li>when the cancer has come back or has not responded to an autologous stem cell transplant (a transplant of the patient's own blood-producing cells);</li><li>if the cancer is likely to come back or get worse after an autologous stem cell transplant;</li><li>when the cancer has come back or has not responded to at least two other therapies and when autologous stem cell transplant or multi-agent chemotherapy (a combination of cancer medicines) cannot be used.</li></ul><p>In non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Adcetris is used for:</p><ul><li>systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (sALCL, a cancer of lymphocytes called T-cells) when the cancer has never been treated before; Adcetris is used together with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and prednisone. It is also used when the cancer has come back or when other treatments have not worked;</li><li>cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), a lymphoma of T-cells that initially affects the skin, in patients who have received at least one previous treatment.</li></ul><p>These diseases are rare, and Adcetris was designated an ‘orphan medicine’ (a medicine used in rare diseases). Further information on the orphan designations can be found on the European Medicines Agency’s website (<a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/orphan-designations/eu308596">Hodgkin’s lymphoma</a>: 15 January 2009; <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/orphan-designations/eu311939">cutaneous T-cell lymphoma</a>: 11 January 2012; <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/orphan-designations/eu308595">peripheral T-cell lymphoma</a>: 21 August 2019).</p><p>Adcetris contains the active substance brentuximab vedotin. </p>