KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of ibrutinib as standard CLL therapy, focusing on side effect-related discontinuations in CLL patients.
- The results showed a distinct requirement for better management of ibrutinib-related AEs and advancements in CLL patient outcomes.
Despite common side effects leading to discontinuation, ibrutinib, a first-generation BTK inhibitor, is the standard therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
Scott F. Huntington and his team conducted a study that aimed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of the first-generation BTK inhibitor ibrutinib as a standard-of-care (SOC) therapy for CLL, with a focus on addressing and mitigating potential side effects that frequently result in treatment discontinuation.
This study utilized claims data from 2013 to 2019 to elucidate the rate of adverse events (AEs) occurrence among elderly Medicare beneficiaries who were commencing ibrutinib treatment for CLL.
The final sample included 11,870 Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with CLL (mean age: 77.2) and newly initiating ibrutinib. Among them, 65.2% discontinued treatment over a mean follow-up period of 2.3 years.
The overall incidence rate of adverse events (AEs) was 62.5 per 1000 patient-months among all discontinuers and 32.9 per 1000 patient-months among non-discontinuers. Discontinuers exhibited a higher incidence rate of AEs per 1000 patient-months compared with non-discontinuers across all examined AEs, including infection (22.8 vs. 14.5), atrial fibrillation (15.1 vs. 7.0), anemia (21.9 vs. 14.5), and arthralgia/myalgia (19.5 vs. 13.6).
The study concluded that in this inaugural real-world analysis involving a nationwide cohort of elderly patients in the United States receiving ibrutinib treatment, there exists a conspicuous gap in addressing the management of ibrutinib-associated AEs and/or the necessity for novel interventions to enhance real-world outcomes for CLL patients. Research was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38348963/
Huntington SF, de Nigris E, Puckett JT, et al. (2024) ‘’Real-world analysis of adverse event rates after initiation of ibrutinib among Medicare beneficiaries with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.’’ Cancer Med. 2024 Jan;13(2):e6953. doi: 10.1002/cam4.6953.
