According to a story from BioPortfolio, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved a new combination therapy for the treating small lymphocytic lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia for patients that have used at least one earlier therapy.
The announcement of the approval was released by Genentech in June of this year. The new combination consists of venetoclax (marketed as Venclexta) and rituximab (marketed as Rituxan). Neither of these medicines are brand new and have both been previously approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but never in combination.
What is Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia?
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a type of cancer that involves lymphocytes (B lymphocytes specifically), a form of white blood cell. In this cancer, the bone marrow overproduces cancerous lymphocyte cells. As a chronic cancer (as opposed to acute), it generally worsens at a slow pace, and rarely presents symptoms initially. It can transform into more aggressive forms. Risk factors include a family history, exposure to Agent Orange, and exposure to certain insecticides. Symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes, unexpected weight loss, fever, fatigue, anemia, and enlargement of the spleen. Five year survival rate is 83 percent. Small lymphocytic lymphoma is essentially the same illness, but the cancer cells are typically in the lymph nodes instead of in the bone marrow and blood. To learn more about chronic lymphocytic leukemia, click here.
The new combination approach allows for a treatment approach that avoids the toxicity and side effects of chemotherapy. In comparison to the conventional treatment approach for chronic lymphocytic lymphoma, Venclexta plus Rituxan demonstrated superior effectiveness, and reduced the risk of death or disease progression by 81 percent.
With this new approval, Venclexta’s indication as a stand alone treatment was also expanded by the FDA. When it was initially approved in 2016, the drug was only meant for patients who had received a prior treatment and who had the 17p deletion mutation that can appear in some cases of chronic lymphocytic lymphoma. Now, the drug is approved for patients regardless of the presence of the mutation.
This new combination therapy represents a significant step forward in treatment effectiveness for this rare, long term cancer. Now patients will have a better chance for survival and higher quality of life.
