Results from a retrospective study show similar outcomes between patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) treated with ibrutinib in the community practice setting and those treated in clinical trials (Br J Haematol. 2020. doi: 10.1111/bjh.16922).
“The experience of patients with [MCL] in community oncology practices, including reasons for treatment discontinuation, is sparse,” explained Jeff Sharman, MD Willamette Valley Cancer Institute and Research Center, Eugene, Oregon, and colleagues.
The aim of this retrospective study was to examine treatment patterns and outcomes of patients with MCL treated with ibrutinib in the community setting.
The US Oncology Network electronic medical records database was used to identify patients treated between November 1, 2013, and October 31, 2016.
Descriptive analysis was performed to assess patient demographic and clinical characteristics. Kaplan-Meier estimates were used to determine clinical outcomes and a Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify predictors of survival.
A total of 1914 patients with MCL were identified, 159 of whom were treated with ibrutinib.
The overall ibrutinib discontinuation rate was 83.6%. The study identified disease progression (35%) and toxicities (25.6%) as the most common reasons for treatment discontinuation.
Median overall survival was 25.82 months and median progression‐free survival and 19.55 months. Multivariate modelling demonstrated patient age as a predictor of survival (hazard ratio 1·041, P = 0.0186).
Overall, ibrutinib treatment was temporarily reduced in 26 patients (16.4%) and held in 48 (30.2%), primarily due to toxicity (66%; n = 32).
“In conclusion, our present study demonstrated similar patient outcomes as those reported in clinical trials with differences in patients’ tolerability to ibrutinib,” concluded Dr Sharman and colleagues.
“However, the need to better understand ibrutinib outcomes in patients treated in community oncology settings is warranted,” they added.—Janelle Bradley
