Venetoclax/Rituximab Combo for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Shows Reduced Disease Progression

Rod Humerickhouse, MD, PhD, asset strategy leader at AbbVie discusses the results from his company's phase 3 MURANO trial investigating venetoclax/rituximab combination for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (R/R CLL) at the 60th ASH Annual Meeting in San Diego. Among the results, a reduced risk in disease progression and 87.9% overall survival in treated patients were highlighted.

In the MURANO clinical trial, 78% of patients who completed the two-year treatment course of VenR without disease progression (N=114) also demonstrated minimal residual disease (MRD)-negativity in peripheral blood. MRD-negativity was a secondary endpoint assessed at the end of combination therapy (nine-month assessment). MRD-negativity (also known as undetectable MRD) is an objective measure defined as the presence of less than one CLL cell in 10,000 white blood cells remaining in the blood or bone marrow following treatment. Earlier prospective clinical trials in CLL patients have provided evidence that achieving MRD-negativity is associated with improved clinical outcomes.