Transcriptomic Profiling of Peripheral Immune Cells in a Trial of Ruxolitinib with Nivolumab for PD1 non-responsive cHL

Treatment with checkpoint inhibitors is effective in multiple cancer types. However, even in cancers with high response rates such as Hodgkin lymphoma, some patients fail to respond or relapse following an initial response to checkpoint inhibitors. In this study, we examined patients enrolled in a clinical trial of ruxolitinib with nivolumab in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (NCT03681561). Patients relapsed or refractory to anti-PD1 therapy received ruxolitinib for 8 days followed by nivolumab every 4 weeks and continued ruxolitinib twice daily. For this transcriptomic study, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected at baseline and 8 days of ruxolitinib therapy and analyzed by single-cell and bulk RNA-sequencing.