# GHSG HD21

Source: https://nuclide.cc/trials/hd21/  
Nuclide record `hd21` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A new brentuximab-based intensive regimen matched Europe's most effective (and most toxic) chemotherapy with far fewer side effects.

## Summary

GHSG HD21, trial NCT02661503 sponsored by the German Hodgkin Study Group and published in the Lancet in 2024, showed that a new brentuximab-based intensive regimen, BrECADD, matched and then beat escalated BEACOPP, Europe's most effective and most toxic chemotherapy for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma, with far fewer side effects. It randomised about 1,500 patients aged 18 to 60 to PET-guided BrECADD or escalated BEACOPP for four to six cycles, met non-inferiority and then superiority on progression-free survival at four and five years, and reduced treatment-related morbidity while preserving fertility markers. Nuclide links it to Hodgkin lymphoma, PET-adapted therapy, brentuximab vedotin, Peter Borchmann, the German Hodgkin Study Group and the ECHELON-1 and S1826 papers. Whether an intensive regimen is still needed when nivolumab-AVD has performed so well is the open question.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: positive
- Last checked: 2026-09-07
- Registry id: NCT02661503
- Phase: 3
- Setting: Untreated advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma, age 18-60: PET-guided BrECADD vs escalated BEACOPP
- Sponsor: German Hodgkin Study Group
- Enrolled: 1500
- Result: 4-year PFS 94.3% vs 90.9%, HR 0.66; less toxicity.
- Outcomes: Progression-free survival at 4 years: BrECADD 94.3% vs eBEACOPP 90.9%, HR 0.66; Treatment-related morbidity: BrECADD 42% vs eBEACOPP 59%

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02661503: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02661503

## Connected records

- technologies: [PET-adapted (response-adapted) therapy](https://nuclide.cc/technologies/pet-adapted-therapy/)
- terms: [Deauville five-point scale for PET](https://nuclide.cc/terms/deauville-for-pet/)

---
JSON: https://nuclide.cc/api/v1/entities/hd21.json