Dr. Lamanna Discusses the MURANO Trial in CLL

Nicole Lamanna, MD, associate professor of medicine, Hematologic Malignancies Section, Division of Hematology/Oncology, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the MURANO trial, which evaluated the use of venetoclax and rituximab (Rituxan) combination therapy versus bendamustine and rituximab in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

This was the follow-up trial to initial phase I data that supported the tolerability and efficacy of the combination. The next step, according to Lamanna, was to compare the venetoclax combination regimen with the standard of care, a chemoimmunotherapy combination comprised of bendamustine and rituximab.

Three-year follow-up data on the feasibility of fixed-duration venetoclax were presented at the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting. Emerging novel agents such as BTK inhibitors are currently being used indefinitely in patients with CLL, and so the rationale for the follow-up analysis was to determine if therapy could be limited without hindering effectiveness of the treatment.