Dr. Ritchie on Immunological Response to Venetoclax/Ibrutinib in R/R MCL

David Ritchie, MD, PhD, hematologist, head of allogenic stem cell transplantation, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses the long-term immunological response to the combination of venetoclax (Venclexta) and ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

Based on data from the phase II AIM study (NCT02471391), the combination of venetoclax and ibrutinib demonstrated encouraging efficacy and a 71% overall response rate in patients with relapsed/refractory disease.

A subset analysis looked at the longitudinal changes in peripheral blood immunology to determine if disease control is associated with normalization of immune responses in these patients, says Ritchie.

The analysis showed that long-term treatment with venetoclax and ibrutinib is associated with immune recovery in patients with relapsed/refractory MCL, explains Ritchie. The majority of patients showed normalization of their immune status and improvement in innate immunity cells. Additionally, changes in inflammatory biomarker expression were noted in patients treated with the combination.

Patients showed biological improvement in monocytes, dendritic cells, gamma delta T cells, and natural killer cells, says Ritchie.

The analysis suggests that venetoclax and ibrutinib may provide immunological recovery over conventional chemotherapy.