William Wierda, MD, PhD, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center discusses results from the CAPTIVATE trial in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) presented at ASH 2020.
CLL is a rare blood cancer resulting in a build-up of lymphocytes in bone marrow, lymph nodes, and blood. The disease is treatable, but relapse is very common.
As Dr. Wierda explains, the CAPTIVATE study is a multicenter, double-blind, phase 2 study with previously untreated CLL patients under the age of 70 years. Patients were given 3 cycles of ibrutinib and an additional 12 cycles of ibrutinib plus venetoclax. Patients who had confirmed rates of undetectable minimal residual disease (uMRD) were then randomized to receive ibrutinib or placebo. Patients who did not meet the definition of undetectable MRD were randomized to receive ibrutinib alone or continued combination therapy. The primary endpoint of the study was 1-year disease-free survival (DFS).
Results of the study showed that the 1-year DFS rate who had uMRD and received ibrutinib was not significantly different from the 1-year DFS rate in uMRD status patients who received placebo. According to Dr. Wierda, these findings support the use of fixed-duration targeted combination strategies in uMRD status patients.
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