Twelve patients had a partial response, one had stable disease, and two had progressive disease. The mean time to best response was 71 days.
One-year progression-free survival was 49%, and 1-year overall survival was 68%.
The investigators found that for patients who still have some disease control with a BCRi, it may be possible to keep them on that drug while transitioning to venetoclax. The rapid dose escalation protocol should only be attempted in highly experience comprehensive cancer centers, Dr. Awan said.
“Under very close monitoring in an experienced inpatient setting, where the nurses are very used to doing this on a weekly basis in a very high volume center, I think that our data show that we could do this without affecting toxicity significantly or mortality,” he said.
Venetoclax therapy could buy enough time for patients to bridge to other options, such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy or allogeneic stem cell transplant, he noted.
“But if we had waited 4 weeks, most of these patients would not have made it,” he said.
The study was internally funded. Dr. Awan reported research funding from Gilead, Pharmacyclics, AbbVie, and Janssen.
SOURCE: Koenig K et al. EHA Congress, Abstract PF357.