Monday, December 7, 2015

Trial in relapsed "high risk" CLL


There is no question that ibrutinib represents one of the greatest advancements in the management of CLL.  This drug has fundamentally changed our understanding of the biology of the disease and opened up new vistas moving forward.

But there is still room for improvement!

It is like we just unlocked a door and now we have a whole new area to explore.  What strategies make most sense moving forward?  Does ibrutinib work best alone or in combination with other drugs?  Do we have the correct dose and schedule of ibrutinibCan we create a better version of a BTK inhibitor?

One of the earliest questions to emerge is the role of adding CD20 antibodies (rituximab, ofatumumab, ublituximab).  There was some debate that ibrutinib might interfere with CD20 antibodies, but that was speculative.  Now clinical trial data is emerging to help answer this question.

I made a video with PatientPower (great site for all things CLL), to describe one such study looking at this question directly: Does adding CD20 antibody to ibrutinib improve outcomes over ibrutinib alone.

In the video we talk a little about "high risk" CLL, FISH, TP53, 17P, 11Q and so forth.  I hope you find it educational.

As always, you can leave a comment below by clicking on the title of this post then scrolling to the bottom.