ALLG HD10 Clinical Trial Achieves Major Milestone for Patients

 In News, Scientific Meeting
mark-amanda-sophie-peter-borchmann-visit-1

The ALLG HD10 clinical trial reached the significant milestone of recruiting 100 patients to this important international cooperative trial.

Professor Mark Hertzberg, haematologist from the Prince of Wales Hospital (NSW) and long-time ALLG leader, is the Principal Investigator of the Australian and New Zealand arm of this international trial established by the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG HD21).

The ALLG HD10 trial aims to identify first-line treatments for Hodgkin lymphoma, or Hodgkin disease (HD), that prevent toxic side effects but maintain the effect in eliminating the cancer cells. The trial is important for enabling access for our advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma patients to the most advanced treatments in the world today, offering them opportunities to access a novel therapy as part of a new regimen designed to maintain the efficacy while potentially minimising both the short- and long-term toxicities of the standard intensive “BEACOPP” chemotherapy regimen. Moreover, the great majority of patients will complete all their planned therapy within a relatively brief 12-week period altogether.

The study is important to the ALLG since it has 16 sites across Australia and New Zealand, including in every state and capital city in Australia, as well as several large regional centres across NSW, Qld and Victoria. Importantly, the ALLG is expanding more trials to New Zealand, and Auckland is New Zealand’s site for the HD10 trial.

“We hope that in future it will enable the ALLG to undertake further studies in collaboration with not only the German Hodgkin Study Group, but also with other cooperative groups in Germany and Europe more generally since we have shown how this can be undertaken successfully,” Professor Hertzberg commented.

“Moreover, it has strengthened our partnership with the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia since they have also supported the study,” he added.

Last September, the ALLG hosted a roundtable discussion in Melbourne, led by Professor Peter Borchmann of the University of Cologne and co-chairman of the GHSG HD21 study. Professor Borchmann (pictured above, right), was joined in the discussions by Professor Hertzberg and ALLG HD10 trial leaders Amanda Jager and Sophie Yorkston (from left to middle right, respectively).

In ALLG’s 46-year history, the HD10 trial now represents the second highest-recruiting international cooperative group study after ALLG NHL16 PRIMA trial, which recruited 158.

Bringing more international trials to Australia and New Zealand is an important objective of the ALLG which will enable more patients in our region to access new treatments that are already available overseas. Planning new trial concepts with our international collaborators and delivering more international trials for ANZ is the focus of the ALLG’s presence this week at the European Hematology Association (EHA) virtual congress. After the success of the recent ALLG Virtual Scientific Meeting, it is a wonderful way to continue our focus on clinical trials during a pandemic.

Find more information about the ALLG HD10 trial and several other ALLG international cooperative trials bringing the newest therapies to Australian and New Zealand patients, please view our new brochure.

The ALLG thanks the Leukaemia Foundation of Australia, which provided partial funding through their Trials Enabling Program to support the ALLG in running HD10.

The ALLG HD10 trial is expected to complete recruitment in the coming months. We will keep you updated on the study in upcoming issues of ALLG News.