An Overview of ABT-199 for the Treatment of CLL

Clinical Pearls

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD, Director, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the Bcl-2 inhibitor ABT-199 for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

• ABT-263 demonstrated significant activity in CLL, though caused thrombocytopenia
• ABT-199 has not had thrombocytopenia issues, but is so potent that it has had problems with tumor lysis
• ABT-199 demonstrated an 80-85% nodal response in an ongoing phase I trial (52 patients)
• All 52 patients in the trial experienced a 50% reduction in lymphocyte count
• ABT-199 has demonstrated efficacy in patients with a 17p deletion and may clear bone marrow more effectively than kinase inhibitors