Study shows new leukemia drug is better than standard therapy

Malignant white blood cells
crowd out normal cells in CLL
– image courtesy American
Society of Hematology

In a study of patients with the most common form of leukemia, researchers have found that a newly approved drug is both more effective and easier to take than conventional therapy. 

The study led by Scott Smith, MD, PhD of Loyola Medicine and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, the researchers enrolled 547 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at 219 cancer centers in the U.S. and Canada. All participants were over the age of 65 and randomly assigned one of three treatments. The standard treatment of bendamustine plus rituximab, ibrutinib (Imbruvica®) alone, or ibrutinib plus rituximab.

After two years 87 percent of the ibrutinib alone group remained alive without disease progression, compared to 74 percent of patients who received the bendamustine plus rituximab regimen. There was no difference between the groups receiving ibrutinib alone and ibrutinib plus rituximab. The study appears in the Dec. 27, 2018 New England Journal of Medicine.

About 17 percent of the ibrutinib patients experienced atrial fibrillation, but overall the drug, taken in pill form, had fewer side effects than standard treatment given by infusion in the clinic three times a month. The average cost for Imbruvica® is estimated at  $13,200 according to GoodRx.

CLL is the most common leukemia in adults affecting certain white blood cells or lymphocytes in the bone marrow, according to the American Cancer Society.

Made by Pharmacyclics and Janssen Biotech, ibrutinib was approved by the FDA in 2016 to be marketed under the trade name Imbruvica®. It is a targeted therapy that blocks a signaling enzyme that plays a role in stimulating growth of the malignant lymphocytes.