Patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) relapsed or refractory (R/R) disease who relapse after or are ineligible for stem cell transplantation have a poor prognosis. The recently approved anti-PD1 monoclonal antibodies nivolumab and pembrolizumab may address the unmet needs of patients with R/R cHL.

In the absence of comparative clinical trials between these agents, this observational study was conducted to evaluate the healthcare resource utilization (HRU) of patients with cHL initiated on pembrolizumab compared to nivolumab in the US.

This real-world study found that adult cHL patients initiated on pembrolizumab experienced significantly lower rates of all-cause and cHL-related hospitalizations compared to those initiated on nivolumab.