Final phase 2 study results of acalabrutinib in treatment-naive and relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Acalabrutinib is a selective, covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for marketing in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). We report final, long-term phase 1/2 study (NCT02029443) results in 99 patients with treatment-naive (TN) and 134 with relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL/SLL. At final data cutoff, 71% and 31% of patients in the TN and R/R cohorts, respectively, remained on acalabrutinib treatment (median follow-up of 73.7 and 52.6 months). Among events of clinical interest (any grade) in the TN and R/R cohorts, atrial fibrillation was reported in 6.1% and 9.0%, hypertension in 29.3% and 23.1%, other malignancies (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in 14.1% and 17.2%, and major bleeding in 8.1% and 8.2% of patients, respectively. The incidence of the most common adverse events decreased over time. Overall response rates were 97.0% and 94.8% in the TN and R/R cohorts, respectively, with similar response findings among patients with standard and high-risk genomic features. In the TN cohort, median progression-free survival (PFS) was not reached and the 72-month PFS rate was 86.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 77.0, 92.5). For the R/R cohort, median PFS was 66.1 months (range 0.4-87.8) and the 72-month PFS rate was 45.1% (95% CI 35.6, 54.1). This final analysis extends the duration of benefit seen with acalabrutinib, demonstrates that no new safety signals are apparent with longer follow-up, and confirms the safety and tolerability of acalabrutinib monotherapy in patients with CLL/SLL.

authors

  • Furman, Richard R
  • Wierda, William G
  • Patten, Piers Em
  • Chaves, Jorge M
  • Brown, Jennifer R
  • Munir, Talha
  • Martin, Peter
  • Awan, Farrukh T
  • Stephens, Deborah M
  • Ghia, Paolo
  • Barrientos, Jacqueline Claudia
  • Patel, Krish
  • Woyach, Jennifer A
  • de Borja, Marianne
  • Wang, Min-Hui
  • Jain, Nitin
  • O'Brien, Susan M
  • Byrd, John C

publication date

  • March 31, 2026

Identity

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1182/bloodadvances.2025018310

PubMed ID

  • 41915892