Authored by Ann Liu, PhD
Medically Reviewed by Brian Koffman, MDCM )retired), MSEd
The Bottom Line:
Patients diagnosed with CLL after the introduction of targeted therapies have improved survival compared with the chemoimmunotherapy era. Targeted therapies reduced mortality and relapse rates compared with chemoimmunotherapy.
Who Performed the Research and Where Was it Presented:
Dr. Mostafa Eysha from Texas Tech University Health Science Center and colleagues presented the results at the American Society for Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in 2025.
Background:
The introduction of targeted therapies revolutionized the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) / small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) and improved patient outcomes. Rather than generally killing rapidly dividing cells like chemotherapy, targeted therapies specifically act on proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread. Ibrutinib, the first BTK inhibitor for CLL, was approved by the FDA in 2014, and the first BCL2 inhibitor for CLL was approved by the FDA in 2016. Several clinical trials have shown that targeted therapies, such as BTK inhibitors and BCL2 inhibitors, are superior to chemoimmunotherapy. In this study, researchers wanted to use real-world data to look at patient outcomes across different treatment types and treatment eras.
Methods and Participants:
This was a retrospective study using deidentified patient data. It included adults who were diagnosed with CLL between 2005 and 2023. Patients were categorized based on the type of treatment they received (chemoimmunotherapy or targeted therapy) and by the era of their diagnosis (2005-2014, 2015-2020, after 2020).
Results:
- There were approximately 25,000 patients in each era cohort.
- Patients who were diagnosed with CLL before 2015 (in the chemoimmunotherapy era) were more likely to die of any cause within five years compared with patients diagnosed between 2015 and 2020 or patients diagnosed after 2020.
- Patients who were diagnosed with CLL before 2015 had a higher risk of death within two years than patients diagnosed after 2020.
- Approximately 2,600 patients were included in each treatment cohort.
- Patients treated with targeted therapies were less likely to die or relapse within 10 years of their diagnosis compared with chemoimmunotherapy.
Conclusions:
Links and Resources:
You can read the actual ASH abstract here: A decade of progress: A comparative analysis of real-world survival in chronic lymphocytic leukemia across therapeutic eras
Take care of yourself first.
Ann Liu, PhD
