IMBRUVICA- HOW LONG TO SEE RESULTS

[skunkbay53]

Hello my husband has been on Imbruvica now for 2 months. At first his white counts when higher as they told us it would. Then two weeks later it started to move down a little each every time he goes to his Hematologist. How long does it take to show that Imbruvica is working against the CLL

[lankisterguy Volunteer]

Hi skunkbay,

The fact that his white counts went up shows that Ibrutinib has pushed them out of his lymph nodes into his peripheral blood, so Ibrutinib is working. His slowly declining number means the CLL cells are dying off faster in the blood than before. BTW- you may want to watch his Lymph# or ALC- Absolute Lymphocyte Count instead of WBC.

I have heard Dr. Furman explain that there is a wide range of results, some patients see their ALC (Lymph#) rise by 50% or even double after starting Ibrutinib, and then take 6 months to drop below their starting values. Others can come down faster or slower.

He has seen some patients get to normal CBC values in 1-2 years and reach MRD negative in 5 years. (MRD = Minimal Residual Disease- no detectable CLL to less than 1 CLL cell in 10,000 Lymph cells).

If you look for the box labeled "Related Posts" on this page (upper right column on computer screens, way below on mobile devices) you can see comments about Ibrutinib from many other patients.

Len

[skunkbay53 in reply to lankisterguy]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[Shira7 in reply to lankisterguy]

thank you for that

[Shira7]

that sounds like it's working as it should. my count went up but isn't really coming down. maybe i'm a slow starter but having to wait and see for a while yet then they'll decide whether or not it's the drug for me. I hope it works I don't want to have to go through anything else and discover it's side effects etc! fingers crossed

[W00dfin]

I was started on Imbruvica 13 months ago. My counts had returned to normal within 4-5 months except for platelets which were 70 at the start and are now 118-120. My platelets stayed around 130 (normal 150-400) when I was in remission so I ain’t complaining. I am also getting IVIG every 4 months to keep my immune system strong.

Best wishes!

[zaax]

White cell have a life of about 110 days in the blood. So it will take a while for the count to start to come down, but come down they will.

[skunkbay53 in reply to zaax]

Thank you!