ASCO 2014: Dr. Susan O'Brien Reviews the 3 Years Follow-up Data on Ibrutinib in CLL (chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia)

If you can handle more hisses and pops on an audio recording, you will get to hear some pretty exciting news from Dr. Susan O' Brien who incidentally is leaving MD Anderson after many years of important CLL related research and compassionate patient care to head up a cancer research team  and consult on CLL patients in my backyard at the University of California at Irvine (UCI) starting Jan. 1, 2015
During the interview, Dr. O'Brien shares the three year follow-up data on single agent ibrutinib in relapsed and refractory patients and in the elderly.
In her important ASCO 2014 abstract, published 6 months ago, the data is astonishingly good for those lucky enough to get ibrutinib frontline, the over 65 crowd, a strong argument in favor of moving it and other drugs such as idelalisib or ABT-199 upfront.  In this trial, in the treatment naive arm, there was one early progression with Richter's that was probably there before the trial even began, and the rest of the cohort remains in the happy land of PFS also known as progression free survival.
The data is still very good for the difficult to treat relapsed and refractory group, but the curve is not flat. Relapses happen. This is especial true for those of us like me with the dreaded 17p deletion, where half the patients have started to progress after a little more than two years. While this is clearly much better than anything else out there in this most challenging population, ibrutinib has not hit a home run for this group as it might have for the treatment naive patients.
Despite significant recent progress, effective long term therapies for relapsed 17p deletion still remains one of the more pressing unmet needs in the world of CLL.
Dr. O'Brien discusses what these relapses look like, and mentions a strategy that I would strongly consider, namely that even at the time of relapse, one stay on ibrutinib until a new therapy is begun, as the BTK inhibitor, even it is no longer irreversibly binding, it is still partially braking the disease progression.
Let's listen to Dr. O'Brien.

Again sorry for the audio noise. Once these final ASCO interviews are posted, I promise I will not only be notching up the quality of what you see and hear about CLL here and elsewhere, but with the help of many others, will be expanding into whole new realms of education and support to meet the unmet needs of our community. Stay tuned.
If you want a personal response, or just want to stay in touch, please email me at bkoffmanMD@gmail.com. I have no other way of contacting. Thanks. Stay strong. After all, we are all in this together.