Paul A. Hamlin, MD, Clinical Director, Lymphoma Outpatient Unit, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the drug brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), which was approved in August 2011 for refractory anaplastic large cell lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma.

Hamlin explains that brentuximab vedotin is part of a new branch of drugs known as antibody-drug conjugates. These agents combine the specificity of an antibody, which can target antigens directly on the surface of the cancer cell, with the ability to directly deliver a targeted cytotoxic payload.

The payload agent in brentuximab vedotin is monomethyl auristatin E, which is a microtubulin inhibitor that prevents neoplastic cells from replicating.

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