Dr. Goy Discusses Recent Updates in the Treatment of CLL

Andre Goy, MD, chairman and director, chief of Lymphoma, and director of Clinical and Translational Cancer Research at John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses recent updates in the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

The treatment landscape of CLL is being reconstructed, says Goy. Novel therapies, such as combinations with ibrutinib (Imbruvica), have caused a paradigm shift in the high-risk population where chemotherapy has been ineffective.

Chemotherapy is showing efficacious results in other areas of the disease, though. For patients with mutated tumors who have no poor-risk features, receiving fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab (FCR) chemotherapy leads to good long-term outcomes, adds Goy.

There are trials ongoing combining ibrutinib with FCR or ibrutinib with FC plus obinutuzumab (Gazyva) in the frontline setting.