Overall survival benefit of obinutuzumab over rituximab when combined with chlorambucil

<p class="article-intro">The CLL11 study compares obinutuzumab versus rituximab in combination with chlorambucil in in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and comorbidities. The final survival results were presented at the EHA Annual Meeting. </p> <hr /> <p class="article-content"><p>Obinutuzumab is a glycoengineered type II anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody that is able to attack chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) by binding and destroying malignant CLL cells. Rituximab is a non-glycoengineered type I anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody that also binds and kills CLL cells.</p> <p>A clinical trial was conducted in a population of previously untreated patients with CLL and co-existing diseases (CLL11 study). The study included a head-to-head comparison of two chemoimmunotherapies: obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil versus rituximab and chlorambucil. Previous analyses of the study with median observation times of approx. 20 and 40 months, respectively, demonstrated longer progression-fee survival (PFS) for obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil when compared with rituximab plus chlorambucil.</p> <p>At the 23^rd EHA Congress, the results of the final analysis of the CLL11 study was presented with a median observation time of approx. 5 years. In this analysis, obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil was not just confirmed to be superior to rituximab plus chlorambucil with regard to PFS (28,9 vs. 15,7 months) but apparently overall survival (OS), too (not reached vs. 73,1 months). Furthermore, the median time to the next treatment with obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil was approximately 4,5 years and nearly doubled when compared to rituximab plus chlorambucil.</p> <p>The study findings support the use of obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil as frontline therapy in patients with CLL and co-existing diseases. Furthermore, the findings suggest obinutuzumab as the preferred anti-CD20 antibody to be used for chlorambucil-based chemoimmunotherapy, but also for future combination regimens for CLL.</p> <p><strong>Reference:</strong> <br /> <em>Goede V et al.: Overall survival benefit of obinutuzumab over rituximab when combined with chlorambucil in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and comorbidities: final survival analysis of the CLL11 study. EHA Annual Congress, abstract # S151</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p></p>