AbbVie said the results of an analysis of three Phase III trials evaluating Imbruvica (ibrutinib) in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) were presented at the 17th International Workshop on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (iwCLL) biennial meeting in New York.
The three studies showed that patients with deletion 11q, trisomy 12, complex karyotype (CK) and unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable-region (IGHV), which are genomic abnormalites, achieved higher complete response (CR) rates and overall response rates (ORR). They also saw longer progression-free survival (PFS) at 24 months and overall survival (OS) at 30 months, AbbVie said in a release.
"Over the past few years, we've seen tremendous improvements in the treatment of people with CLL and SLL," Dr. Thomas Kipps, of the University of California San Diego Moores Cancer Center, lead investigator of the study, said in the release. "Newly introduced medications can improve the outcome of therapy, particularly for patients with high-risk prognostic markers who typically do not respond well to standard chemotherapy. Analysis of the clinical data suggests an improvement in outcomes for certain high-risk CLL/SLL patients treated with Imbruvica."
CLL begins in the bone marrow and develops from cells that become lymphocytes, a specific type of white blood cell. The genomic abnormalities in CLL are found in up to 80 percent of patients.
SLL is biologically similar to CLL. It is a slow-growing lymphoma; too many immature white blood cells affect the lymph nodes, resulting greater than normal enlargement.
