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EHA 2025 | The evolving role of BTK degraders in CLL & novel patient populations in which they may be explored
Zulfa Omer, MD, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, comments on the potential of BTK degraders in treating relapsed/refractory (R/R) chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). She mentions a Phase I trial of bexobrutideg, which showed the efficacy of this agent in patients who had already received multiple lines of therapy. Dr Omer then discusses plans to investigate this agent in new CLL cohorts, such as those with autoimmune hemolytic anemia and those who are BCL2 inhibitor-naive. This interview took place at the 30th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Milan, Italy.
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Transcript
Already from looking at the data that we have right now, I think BTK degraders, especially like our Nurix degrader, are placing themselves into the treatment paradigm for the relapse refractory CLL patient. As I just mentioned a while ago, like 80% of our patients had already seen covalent or non-covalent BTK inhibitors and BCL2 inhibitors. So we have, like, most of the population in this trial already were double refractory and received multiple lines of therapy, and we do see great responses...
Already from looking at the data that we have right now, I think BTK degraders, especially like our Nurix degrader, are placing themselves into the treatment paradigm for the relapse refractory CLL patient. As I just mentioned a while ago, like 80% of our patients had already seen covalent or non-covalent BTK inhibitors and BCL2 inhibitors. So we have, like, most of the population in this trial already were double refractory and received multiple lines of therapy, and we do see great responses. Overall response of 80% is really like great in the overall population. So I think with time and with having more data, BTK degraders are definitely going to be there in the relapse refractory setting. And even as a frontline, hopefully soon it will show its capability and efficacy in that population as well. So I think, especially looking at the outcome from our Phase I trial, BTK degraders are here to stay. They are going to definitely have a role. We already see their efficacy in the relapsed/refractory setting in our CLL patients. And I think they will, you know, as I said, they are definitely there for the relapsed/refractory and hoping for them even to advance for the earlier treatment-naive patients. And just want to share that for Nurix, we are hoping to open more cohorts that will actually help us answer so many questions in the CLL world. Like, for example, we will be having a cohort seeing the role of the degrader in CLL patients who have autoimmune hemolytic anemia, which we know earlier BTK showed efficacy in that role. We are also looking into advancing it in the first line and also opening a cohort for BCL2-naive. And I think the BCL2-naive will help us to answer a question that we have in CLL, which is, should we stay in class, meaning moving from covalent to non-covalent to now maybe a degrader or if, you know, treatment or if using a BCL2 earlier, if it’s going to affect the outcome or not. So I think this cohort is really exciting and it’s going to help us answer this, the sequencing of BTK with BCL2 treatment for the CLL patients, either relapsed/refractory or further treatment naive. So again, a lot of exciting work that is coming out with our BTK degrader.
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