Dr. Ma on the Utility of BTK Inhibitors in Relapsed/Refractory CLL

Shuo Ma, MD, PhD, an associate professor of medicine (hematology and oncology), Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, ​Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, discusses the utility of BTK inhibitors in relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

The course of treatment with BTK inhibitors depends on the type of disease, says Ma. For example, in CLL, ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and acalabrutinib (Calquence) are approved for use in both the frontline and relapsed settings. In terms of how these agents are being used in a clinical setting, they are becoming some of the field’s major first-line treatment options, according to Ma.

Over the past several years, many large, randomized clinical trials have compared BTK inhibitor-based therapies with conventional chemoimmunotherapy. BTK inhibitors have shown significant benefit in terms of progression-free survival, even when compared with the best chemoimmunotherapy regimens available, concludes Ma.