An Interview from the 2015 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting with Dr. Richard Furman on the Emerging Role of Novel Agents in CLL
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At the CRC (CLL Research Consortium) meeting in April 2015, Dr. John Byrd from Ohio State University discussed the long-term data that is now out almost three years for ibrutinib in both relapsed and treatment-naïve patients.
Key Take-Aways
- Responses rates improve over time with ibrutinib.
- 75% of patients in the relapsed groups are still in remission at 30 months.
- In the treatment-naïve patient group, only 1 patient has relapsed
- We are seeing more complete remissions.
- Most Richter’s Transformations occur within the first year of the therapy with ibrutinib.
- More than half of the 17p deleted patients are no longer on therapy.
- Most late relapses occur with patients with CLL, not Richter’s Transformation.
- Most CLL relapses are due to specific mutations in the BTK pathway: (C481S) or PLCγ2.
- No new serious late side effects have shown up.
- There is life after ibrutinib resistance.
Dr. Byrd presents more encouraging news with his update with his long-term data on ibrutinib.
We discussed the option of moving ibrutinib upfront for more than just the 17p deleted patients. This is a direction that both the researchers and the pharmaceutical companies are vigorously exploring.
My plea remains the same. Let’s not just control CLL. Let’s cure CLL.
Here is Dr. Byrd’s short interview from CRC 2015.
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Brian Koffman 10/5/15
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