Posted on 02/10/2025 8:05:47 PM PST by ConservativeMind
An international study provides hope for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with a new all-tablet treatment showing impressive results.
The AMPLIFY clinical trial included more than 800 never-before-treated CLL patients and compared a standard chemotherapy-based treatment to a new all-tablet approach.
Standard chemotherapy treatments for CLL, plus the immunotherapy treatment rituximab, require patients to undergo a lengthy infusion and can cause prolonged immune suppression and other unpleasant side-effects.
"Our study indicates a new treatment combination of two or three targeted therapies—acalabrutinib-venetoclax, with or without obinutuzumab—can significantly prolong progression free survival compared to the previous standard chemotherapy treatment regimens," says Professor John Seymour.
"These results are very encouraging with the overall survival at 36 months being significantly better with this all-tablet combination compared to chemotherapy treatments.
Prof Seymour said another all-tablet approach in CLL—using a different drug called ibrutinib; however, this was "associated with a concerning risk of heart complications."
The trial also observed CLL patients with a disease profile called "uIGHV" which is generally associated with poorer outcomes compared to patients with the "mutated IGHV" profile.
"These patients had equivalent outcomes with the new combination, identifying this group as one that particularly benefits," Prof Seymour says.
"When obinutuzumab treatment was added to the uIGHV group they had a progression-free survival similar to the group with mutated IGHV patients, which is promising in this hard-to-treat cancer group. It was also reassuring to observe similar side-effect profiles for all the treatments with the majority being readily manageable.
"This really is wonderful news for fit, treatment naive CLL patients. We look forward to being able to offer them this safe and effective all-oral, fixed-duration regimen to reduce the burdens of therapy in the near future."
CLL is a blood cancer that affects white blood cells called lymphocytes. It is the most common leukemia.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
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