Disclaimer: To protect patient privacy, this question has been edited slightly to omit identifying details.
A Patient Power reader asked, “I am a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In patients with high-risk mutations, is venetoclax (Venclexta) and/or obintuzumab (Gazyva) used along with a Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor? If so, under what circumstances is double or triple therapy used?”
Expert Response
“Treatments that combine a BTK inhibitor and venetoclax are not approved in the [United States]. So these treatments are not available for CLL patients, outside of participating in a clinical trial,” said Kerry Rogers, MD, from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – The James.
“Whether these regimens may be more effective for someone with a ‘high-risk’ mutation depends on what the mutation is,” Dr. Rogers said. “The answer is likely to be different for people with CLL that have a TP53 mutation and CLL that is IGHV unmutated. Both can be considered as ‘high risk,’ but they do not have the same biology.”
“Even if these treatment combinations were available in the U.S., the follow up – or time we have been monitoring people after completing these treatments – is too short to know which patients might be most benefit from this treatment,” Dr. Rogers said. “I look forward to learning the answer over the next several years.”
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