Treatment Yields Long-term Benefits in Patients With CLL/SLL

Over a median 3.5 years of follow up, the overall response rate in patients treated with zanubrutinib monotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) was 95.4%, according to a study published in Advances in Therapy.

“Zanubrutinib is a highly selective irreversible inhibitor of Bruton tyrosine kinase, which has shown significant activity in lymphoid malignancies in early phase studies,” researchers explained in the study introduction. “We report here the long-term follow-up outcomes of zanubrutinib in various lines of therapy in patients with CLL/SLL.”

The post hoc analysis included 19 patients with treatment-naïve CLL/SLL and 192 patients with relapsed/refractory CLL/SLL who received zanubrutinib monotherapy in three phase 1/2 studies. Median follow-up was 45.9 months overall, 50.1 months in patients with treatment-naïve disease, and 35.7 months in patients with relapsed/refractory disease.

The 95.4% overall response rate stemmed from a weighted analysis involving 19 patients with treatment-naïve CLL/SLL and 24 patients with relapsed/refractory CLL/SLL. In the treatment-naïve group, the overall response to zanubrutinib treatment was 100%, compared with 91% in the relapsed/refractory group and 98.9% in the one-prior-line-of-therapy group, according to the analysis.

Among patients with relapsed/refractory CLL/SLL, the overall response rate was 97.8% among 79 patients with one prior line of therapy and 90.7% among 85 patients with more than one prior lines of therapy, researchers reported. Patients with treatment-naïve disease or a single prior line of therapy had significantly longer progression-free survival and overall survival than patients with more than one prior lines of therapy.

Infections (41.7%), neutropenia (34.1%), and thrombocytopenia (9.4%) were the most common grade 3 or higher adverse events, the study found.

“With extended follow-up, zanubrutinib yielded long-term benefits and demonstrated a favorable safety profile for patients with treatment-naïve or relapsed/refractory CLL/SLL,” researchers concluded. “Earlier utilization of zanubrutinib was associated with better outcomes.”

Reference:
Xu W, Yang S, Tam CS, ET AL. Zanubrutinib monotherapy for naïve and relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma: a pooled analysis of three studies. Adv Ther. 2022;39(9):4250-4265. doi:10.1007/s12325-022-02238-7