The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events were neutropenia in 50% of patients, thrombocytopenia in 25%, and anemia in 17%. There were no cases of clinical tumor lysis syndrome, which has been known to occur when venetoclax is initiated at full dose without a ramp-up.
The most common adverse events of any grade included neutropenia, diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infection, thrombocytopenia, nausea, fatigue, cough, rash, and anemia.
“The low number of CRs reported at the time of analysis may be a result of the follow-up time, particularly for patients in the expansion cohort, as other clinical studies with venetoclax report CR occurring after 1 year on therapy. Patients with prior ibrutinib exposure who had progressed on idelalisib as their most recent therapy before study entry had similar efficacy results,” the investigators wrote.
Genentech and AbbVie funded the study. Dr. Coutre is an advisory board member for both companies and others, and receives institutional funding from AbbVie and others. Multiple coauthors disclosed financial relationships with AbbVie, Genentech, or both, as well as other companies.
SOURCE: Coutre S et al. Blood. 2018;131(15):1704-11.