What Does the Future Hold for CLL Treatment?

While there have been many advances in treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), unmet needs and challenges remain, making future research critical.

Josie Montegaard, NP, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, spoke at JADPRO Live 2023, the Annual APSHO Meeting, about how she hopes to see the field move forward. She hopes researchers and clinicians can better understand how adverse event profiles differ among Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors. Regarding venetoclax-based regimens, she hopes the field can “better optimize treatment duration” with venetoclax for patients with CLL who have high-risk disease features, such as del(17p) or mutated TP53.

Beyond these questions, it will also be important to understand how to sequence BTK inhibitors and venetoclax-based regimens in patients with CLL.

“Right now, I don’t think there is a clear answer as to whether doing one drug first benefits the patient more than the other,” Ms. Montegaard said. “But as we get more data—particularly with giving patients BTK inhibitors after venetoclax because we have more data with giving venetoclax after BTK inhibitors—will that sort of change our approach and make us lean towards one or the other?”