Janssen’s Imbruvica shows promise in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia study

The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) have shared results from a real-world study evaluating the use of Imbruvica (ibrutinib) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

The real-world data demonstrated that patients with (CLL) treated with first-line acalabrutinib monotherapy were 89% more likely to start a next-line treatment than those treated with Imbruvica (ibrutinib). The study findings were presented during the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

The results suggest that Imbruvica – used with first-line treatments in routine practice – could potentially offer patients the chance to use once-daily, all-oral Imbruvica as a monotherapy treatment for a longer period, without the need to start the next line of therapy.

“The results demonstrate the possible impact of using ibrutinib versus acalabrutinib in the front-line setting and provide healthcare professionals with additional data showing differences in time to next treatment,” said Ryan Jacobs, principal study investigator, clinical director, division of lymphoma therapy and research, department of haematologic oncology, Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute.

The trial implemented Acentrus, de-identified academic electronic medical records (EMR) to detect patients starting first-line treatment with Imbruvica or acalabrutinib between 21 November 2019 and 30 April 2022 and examined time to next treatment (TTNT) as a clinically meaningful surrogate measure for disease progression.

TTNT was defined as the time noted from the index date to the initiation of a next or additional treatment. Results showed at 12 months, 95.3% of patients treated with Imbruvica had not initiated a next treatment versus 91.2% of patients treated with acalabrutinib, while at 15 months, 94.6% of patients treated with Imbruvica had not initiated next therapy compared to 88.3% of patients treated with acalabrutinib.

“Insights from real-world data are becoming more important to help physicians understand optimal treatments and sequencing, especially for patients living with chronic diseases like CLL,” said Imran Khan, vice president, medical affairs, oncology, Janssen Biotech.

“With nearly ten years of data since Imbruvica was first approved, we are sourcing real-world data to provide insights from large cohorts of patients further supporting Imbruvica as a first-line treatment option for CLL.”

Imbruvica is approved in over 100 countries and has been used to treat more than 270,000 patients globally. The treatment was first approved in November 2013 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is currently indicated for adult patients in six disease areas, including five haematologic cancers.