"The way we treat patients with CLL is changing rapidly as we move from standard chemotherapy-based approaches to more targeted therapies," said principal investigator Ian W. Flinn, MD, Ph.D., Director of the Lymphoma Research Program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville. "Based on these data, duvelisib may offer a new treatment option for patients who otherwise may have limited options."
In sub-group analyses, researchers found duvelisib worked just as well as ofatumumab among the hardest-to-treat cases, including those patients with p17 deletion or p53 abnormalities, who have few available therapeutic options. Patients with these genetic mutations who took duvelisib had a 60 percent reduction in their risk of cancer progression or death compared to similar patients in the ofatumumab group.
"These are patients in whom traditional chemotherapy doesn't work," said Dr. Flinn.
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