Progression on Ibrutinib With the Acquisition of Resistance Mutations

Jennifer Woyach, MD, assistant professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the association of disease progression on ibrutinib therapy with the acquisition of resistance mutations as seen at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Clinical Pearls:

• Researchers found that the 267 patients that were treated with ibrutinib at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center had a low rate of relapse.
• 29 patients were in total relapse with a median follow-up of 20 months. Of those 29 patients, 17 relapsed with Richter's transformation while the other 12 relapsed with CLL.
• Patients who relapsed with CLL also had BTK and PLCγ2 mutations that were not present at baseline.
• Only 2 out of 8 patients tested who relapsed with Richter’s transformation had mutations in BTK or PLCγ2.
• Further research is being conducted to look into the associated between Richter’s transformation and BTK and PLCγ2 mutations.