Site Editor
Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, MMSc
Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, MMSc
Posted: Monday, March 17, 2025
Treatment with venetoclax/obinutuzumab helped to overcome the impact of telomere length on progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to a study by the German CLL Study Group presented during the 2024 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition. Patients who had short telomere length demonstrated inferior PFS when treated with chemoimmunotherapy of chlorambucil/obinutuzumab compared with those who received venetoclax/obinutuzumab.
Study investigators, led by Lukas Peter Frenzel, of the University of Cologne in Germany, looked at patients from the CLL14 trial, which demonstrated the benefit of fixed-duration treatment with venetoclax/obinutuzumab compared with chlorambucil/obinutuzumab in patients with previously untreated CLL and coexisting conditions. Telomere length was associated with high-risk clinical and genetic parameters.
Patients with short telomeres had shorter PFS (median 48.4 months vs. 62.2 months). Overall survival rates were higher in patients with longer telomeres (82.5% vs. 71.1%).
An association was found between telomere length and PFS in the chlorambucil/obinutuzumab arm but not in the venetoclax/obinutuzumab arm. Patients with short telomeres had significantly longer PFS in the venetoclax/obinutuzumab arm compared to patients in the chlorambucil/obinutuzumab arm. But longer telomeres did not show an impact on PFS.
“To refine our understanding, we plan to compare our results with further trials on targeted therapies, considering methodologies for TL determination and patient age,” noted Dr. Frenzel and colleagues.
2024 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
JNCCN Spotlights
