Venetoclax Improves Quality of Life for Patients with Elapsed/Refractory Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

INTRODUCTION: Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have significantly decreased health related quality of life (HRQoL), particularly related to severe and progressive fatigue. Side effects of chemotherapies and the emotional burden of living with an often poor prognosis disease also negatively impact patient HRQoL. Venetoclax, an oral agent that targets the anti-apoptotic protein BCL2, has demonstrated high rates of deep and durable response in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL, including those with 17p deletions, and has been shown to facilitate clinically relevant improvement in several key aspects of functioning and HRQoL. We evaluated the impact of venetoclax monotherapy on the quality of life of patients with R/R CLL.

METHODS: VENICE II is an ongoing open-label, phase 3b, multicenter study (NCT02980731) that assessed patient-reported HRQoL in patients who were ≥18 years old with R/R CLL, including those with 17p deletion, TP53 mutations, and/or prior experience with B-cell receptor pathway inhibitor-containing (BCRi) therapy, treated with venetoclax monotherapy (5-week dose-titration, starting at 20mg once daily, then increased weekly to 50 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg, and 400 mg, followed by 400mg once daily). The primary endpoint was the mean change from baseline to Week 48 in the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) subscale. HRQoL subscales analyzed included: Global Health Status, Role Functioning, Emotional Functioning, Cognitive Functioning, Social Functioning, and Fatigue. The impact on QoL was also assessed on the CLL Module (EORTC QLQ-CLL16). Relevance of mean changes in HRQoL measures from baseline were analyzed based on minimum important difference (MID); a 5-10 point change was defined as MID, and >10 points was considered clinically meaningful.(Osoba, D., et al. J Clin Oncol. 1998;16:139-44. Osoba, D., et al. Qual Life Res. 1994;3:353-64.) Safety and adverse events (AEs) were also monitored.

RESULTS: As of the data cutoff, April 30, 2018, the median time on study was 28 weeks (range: 1 - 73) and the median time on therapy was 23 weeks (range: 0.1 - 69) in this ongoing study. Of the 169 treated patients, 70% were male; the median age was 65 years (range: 24 - 86). Among those with available data, 17p deletions and TP53 mutations were confirmed in 34% (41/122) and 38% (19/50) of patients, respectively. Overall, 38%, 20%, and 42% of patients had one, two, and three (or more) prior lines of therapy respectively; 21% of patients had prior BCRi therapy. Clinically meaningful improvements from baseline were observed by week 12 and were sustained through week 48 in the EORTC-QLQ-C30 global health status and the role function, social function, and fatigue subscales (Table and Figure 1A) and EORTC-QLQ-CLL16 future health and disease effect subscales (Table and Figure 1B). Eighty-two percent of patients had at least 1 AE; most commonly observed AEs (≥10% of patients) were neutropenia (35%), diarrhea (17%), thrombocytopenia (15%), anemia (12%), nausea (12%), and upper respiratory infection (11%). Twenty-eight percent of patients had a serious AE, of which the most common were pneumonia (5%), febrile neutropenia (4%) and pyrexia (3%). Five percent of patients discontinued the study due to an AE.

CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary data from this ongoing study suggest that patients with R/R CLL experienced improvement in several key aspects of functioning and quality of life with venetoclax monotherapy within the first 12 weeks which is sustained over time. Venetoclax monotherapy was well tolerated in R/R CLL patients. These findings are consistent with previous studies of R/R CLL patients who received venetoclax monotherapy.

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