James Dean, MD, Senior Medical Director at Pharmacyclics provides an update on the phase II CAPTIVATE study testing ibrutinib plus venetoclax to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic leukemia (SLL).
CLL is a rare blood cancer resulting in a build-up of lymphocytes in bone marrow, lymph nodes and blood. The disease is considered treatable, but relapse is very common.
In the CAPTIVATE study, adults with previously untreated CLL or SLL were randomly assigned to receive Ibrutinib monotherapy for 3 cycles followed by 12 cycles of Ibrutinib plus venetoclax.
The results showed that undetectable minimal residual disease (uMRD) – defined as less than 1 CLL cell per 10,000 leukocytes – was achieved in 75% of patients as measured by peripheral blood levels and in 72% of patients as measured bone marrow levels.
Ibrutinib is a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor jointly developed and commercialized by Pharmacyclics and Janssen Biotech.
Venetoclaxis is a B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) protein inhibitor jointly developed and commercialized by Abbvie and Roche.
To learn more about CLL and other rare cancers, visit checkrare.com/diseases/rare-cancers/
