EHA 2016: Dr. Jeff Jones on Novel Combination Therapies in CLL

In the second part of our interview from EHA (European Hematology Association), Dr. Jeff Jones out of OSU discusses possible combinations using the new highly effective drugs for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Take Away Points

• Research in blood cancers pioneered the use of drug cocktails that ideally had little overlapping toxicities, but markedly increased efficacy to improve outcomes in many leukemia and lymphomas.
• The result of adding rituximab to a TKI, such as the approved ibrutinib and idelalisib, do not clearly improve outcomes.
• While adding a TKI to chemo-immunotherapy (CIT) improves outcomes compared to CIT alone, it is less certain that adding CIT to a TKI improves the outcomes of the TKI alone. This is a very important point.
• Ongoing trials are looking at combining novel agents, such as adding a TKI to venetoclax, the recently approved BCL-2 inhibitor.
• These trials of combinations using approved drugs and those in development, such as duvelisib, TGR-1202, ACP-196 and others are the only way we are going to continue to improve outcomes.

Dr. Jones pulls no punches and his candid assessment of what we need to do to get to cure is worth a listen.

Please enjoy.

Brian Koffman, MD 8/1/16