Abstract Highlights from EHA 2022 : A Spotlight on CLL

Spotlight on CLL

Ahead of EHA 2022, Medscape Education Chief Medical Officer, Hansa Bhargava, MD, caught up with Prof John Gribben, UK, on the most important abstracts to look out for in CLL. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Big interest in combining ibrutinib and venetoclax with two studies reported, both considering eradicating minimal residual disease (MRD) and how important that is:
   • Ph 3 FLAIR – interim data – at the 2-year mark when patients are discontinuing treatment, 89% of those patient’s bone marrow was MRD negative and 97% of patient’s blood was negative. This wasn’t seen with ibrutinib monotherapy, showing the strength of adding venetoclax to the combination.
   • Ph 2 CAPTIVATE with different treatment arms; some fixed duration and some driven by the endpoint. Translational data reported on the dynamics of looking at MRD, what cells are left, and do they differ – are we selecting out resistant variants? All important questions being addressed.
   • Combinations are being submitted for approval with it now being important to understand who the suitable patient is compared to the other available choices.
2. Six-year follow-up data with venetoclax monotherapy in patients with 17p deletion – ORR approx. 77%, median OS >5yrs which is a great advantage for this patient population compared to the past, and median PFS of 28 months. Although we are moving beyond venetoclax monotherapy, this shows the level of efficacy that is being achieved.
3. Update on the Ph 2 BRUIN study with pirtobrutinib and the patients with CLL who have had a median of 3 prior lines of therapy, meaning they are already heavily pre-treated with 86% having received a prior BTK inhibitor. Good responses are seen and now waiting to see how durable these responses are in terms of longer follow-up to see the long-term benefit.

You can also watch the full video here

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