OBJECTIVES: Brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS®), a CD30-targeted antibody-drug conjugate, has conditional approval in Europe for the treatment of adult patients with RR sALCL. This systematic review summarized the efficacy of other treatments for RR ALCL, for comparison with brentuximab vedotin. METHODS: A systematic literature review identified studies published between 1993 and February 2013 reporting efficacy of treatments in adult patients with RR ALCL, or more generally with RR peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) including ≥1 ALCL patient. Five databases were included: EMBASE, MEDLINE, and the WHO ICTRP; reviews published since 2011 were also searched manually for additional studies. English publications reporting complete remission/response (CR) rate and/or 2-year overall survival (OS) in RR ALCL/PTCL populations were included. Publications of principal treatment with bone marrow transplantation or radiotherapy were excluded. CR rates and 2-year OS, from the identified studies and from the brentuximab vedotin single-arm phase 2 trial in sALCL (SG035-0004), were summarized. RESULTS: Of 1653 publications screened, 12 studies were eligible for inclusion; all were phase 1 or 2 or unspecified prospective non-randomized studies. For these studies, the CR rates were 0–28% in RR PTCL patients (n=4–130 PTCL; median age 36–69 years; n=1–41 ALCL), and for the 6 studies that also reported CR outcomes in the subset of RR ALCL patients (n=13–130 PTCL; median age 47–69 years; n=2–41 ALCL), the CR rates were 0–33% in RR ALCL patients. For RR ALCL patients treated with brentuximab vedotin in SG035-0004 (n=58 sALCL; median age 52 years) the CR rate was 59%. The 2-year OS ranged from 7–33% in the 5 identified studies that reported OS, compared with 63% with brentuximab vedotin in SG035-0004. CONCLUSIONS: The CR rate and 2-year OS for brentuximab vedotin in RR sALCL appear to exceed that of other therapies in RR ALCL/PTCL.