Changes in the Treatment Landscape for Chronic Lymphoid Leukemia

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 371; no. 3; pp. 273 - 274
• Main Author: Foà, Robin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 17-07-2014
• Subjects: Antibodies, Monoclonal - therapeutic use; Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; Anticoagulants; B-cell receptor; Bruton's tyrosine kinase; CD20 antigen; Chemotherapy; Chronic lymphocytic leukemia; Drug therapy; Female; Humans; Kinases; Leukemia; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell - drug therapy; Lymphatic leukemia; Lymphocytes B; Lymphoma; Male; Medical prognosis; Mutation; Patients; Protein-tyrosine kinase; Pyrazoles - therapeutic use; Pyrimidines - therapeutic use; Signal transduction
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1405766

After decades during which the treatment of patients with chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL) was based on chemotherapy and more recently on chemoimmunotherapy, we are witnessing a new mechanism-driven era with the development of compounds capable of targeting the B-cell receptor signaling pathway. In this issue of the
Journal,
after an earlier phase 2 study,
1
Byrd et al.
2
present the results of the first randomized trial comparing the effect of ibrutinib, an inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase, with that of the anti-CD20 antibody ofatumumab, both used alone, for patients with relapsed or refractory CLL or small lymphocytic lymphoma. The results indicate . . .