BTK inhibitors combined with chemoimmunotherapy in CLL – the best of both worlds?

Chemoimmunotherapy (CIT) remains a standard-of-care in many regions for first line (1L) therapy of CLL. In fit patients, fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab (FCR) has the advantage of achieving undetectable measurable residual disease (MRD) with time-limited treatment and prolonged treatment-free remissions with a plateau on the PFS curve, but has several limitations, most notably the inferior PFS and survival outcomes for patients with unmutated IGHV compared to ibrutinib  + rituximab seen in the E1912 study and a risk for long-term toxicities such as therapy-related myeloid neoplasms.
Source: Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia - Category: Hematology Authors: Source Type: research