Dr. Woyach on Clinical Trials Examining Novel Triplets in CLL

Jennifer Woyach, MD, a hematologist-oncologist and an associate professor within the Department of Internal Medicine at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center –The James, discusses clinical trials examining novel triplet regimens in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Several ongoing cooperative group studies are of interest in CLL, says Woyach. These are National Clinical Trials Network trials and they are designed for frontline CLL. These efforts are similar to the previously conducted phase 3 E1912 study for younger patients with CLL and the AO41202 study for older patients with the disease.

These newer studies, EA9161 and AO41702, are designed to examine frontline treatment in younger and older patients with CLL. Both studies are comparing ibrutinib (Imbruvica) plus obinutuzumab (Gazyva) versus ibrutinib combined with both obinutuzumab and venetoclax (Venclexta) to see whether the strategy of adding venetoclax to an ibrutinib-based regimen improves progression-free survival in patients, says Woyach.

These studies are comparing a triplet regimen versus a doublet regimen and are a bit different in how they discontinue therapy in the triplet group. This research will be very helpful as we will be able to see how the benefits seen with a triplet versus a doublet extend to both older and younger patient populations, concludes Woyach.