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Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD
Jennifer R. Brown, MD, PhD
Posted: Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Anthony R. Mato, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues presented their findings on treatment outcomes of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) previously treated with Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors and B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) inhibitors. These findings were presented at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2022 Congress (Abstract P639). Using a real-world data set from the United States, they found that patients who previously received inhibitor treatments generally experienced poor outcomes.
“Covalent BTK inhibitors…and BCL2 inhibitors…have transformed outcomes in patients with [CLL]. Although these agents are highly effective, they are not curative, and a proportion of patients will require additional therapy,” stated Dr. Mato and colleagues.
A total of 382 patients participated in this study; eligibility criteria included patients diagnosed with CLL between December 2011 and October 2020. Patients were also required to have completed treatment with at least one covalent BTK inhibitor and a BCL2 inhibitor during the first through third lines of therapy. De-identified patient-level electronic medical record data were used, and all patients received at least 1 year of follow-up.
Overall findings revealed that 228 patients (59.7%) received subsequent therapy after both inhibitor regimens, whereas the remaining 154 patients (40.3%) did not receive further treatment. Among those who received further treatment, the most common therapies included retreatment with a venetoclax-containing regimen (n = 112, 49.1%). Among those who received subsequent therapy, the median time from the start of the immediate post-therapy regimen to treatment discontinuation or death was 5.5 months (95% confidence interval = 3.5–6.9 months).
Based on these findings, the study authors concluded that patients who received subsequent therapy had poor outcomes overall, and this population still represents “a growing area of unmet medical need.”
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit ehaweb.org.
