ASCO 2016: Dr. Susan O’Brien on Acalabrutinib in Frontline CLL

Dr. Susan O’Brien from the University of California at Irvine shares the important news from ASCO 2016 related to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

While the ASH (American Society of Hematology) and EHA (European Hematology Association) congresses are solely focused on blood cancers, ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) covers all malignancies, especially solid tumors, so there tends to be less CLL news to report from the Chicago ASCO meeting.

That said there were several abstracts from ASCO 2016 that deserve our attention.

One involves acalabrutinib, a promising second-generation BTK inhibitor, much like ibrutinib, but more selective. The hope is that it will retain ibrutinib’s efficacy and have fewer side effects. The early trial data is positive.

This abstract provides frontline information for the first time. The response rate was an impressive 97% and there has been no progression reported to date.

Here is the link to the abstract for all the details of the trial. Dr. Byrd was the lead author and he also was the lead author on the pivotal ibrutinib article published in NEJM.

Here is our interview with Dr. O’Brien:

The news is very encouraging, but we need more data with more patients to be sure what we are seeing bears out. So far, so good.

Brian Koffman, MD  10/6/16