Category Archives: idelalisib

Combination therapies for B cell lymphoma, part 2

Combination therapies for B cell lymphoma: CC-292 and idelalisib.

Lets begin by recapping where we were yesterday. We reviewed ibrutinib, the clear frontrunner in the race to bring new targeted oral therapies to B cell lymphoma physicians and patients. Ibrutinib is being developed by Pharmacyclics and Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) Janssen division, and was recently approved for the treatment of MCL. The drug is moving forward in many clinical trials spanning the B cell lymphoma space, and most of these trials are done in combination with other therapeutics, notably the antibody therapy rituximab (Rituxan). None of the trials are being run as collaborative efforts with other companies with one exception, a collaboration put in place with Onyx (now part of Amgen). None of the combinations are wholly owned by Pharmacyclics (PCYC) and JNJ. The interesting question of how best to tackle the cost of very expensive combo therapies in the oncology marketplace was raised.

Gilead (GILD) has developed the very exciting PI3Kdelta inhibitor, idelalisib (access to a recent review is here). Idelalisib data generated at lot of buzz at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists meeting (ASCO) and at ASH. While generally considered somewhat inferior to ibrutinib as a monotherapy, the phase 3 data in combination with rituximab was striking. The trial was run in rrCLL patients who had failed prior therapies (rituximab or chemo), so these are patients quickly running out of options. The ORR was 81%, but what was really impressive was the impact on PFS and OS. At 24 weeks twice as many patients were progression free in the idelalisib plus rituxumab arm (95%) versus the rituximab alone arm (46%). We’ll have to see how this therapy holds up, and we can expect interesting data at the 2014 conferences.

But back to our question for 2014 and beyond: how will combination therapies continue to develop for the treatment of lymphoma? Lets look at Gilead’s active clinical trials for idelalisib – note that some of these trials have already read out results.

Trial NumberPhasedate filedCombinationIndication
NCT01732913311/14/2012rituximabrr iNHL
NCT0153951232/12/2012rituximabrrCLL
NCT0120393029/15/2010rituximabuntreated CLL, SCL
NCT01980875311/5/2013rituximabuntreated CLL
or chlorambucilÿ
NCT01732926311/14/2012bendamustine/rituximabrr iNHL
NCT01980888311/5/2013bendamustine/rituximabuntreated CLL
NCT0156929533/27/2012bendamustine/rituximabrrCLL
NCT0164479917/17/2012lenalidomide/rituximabrrFL
NCT018384341,24/19/2013nonerrMCL
lenalidomide/rituximab
NCT0165902138/3/2012ofatumumabrrCLL
NCT0179647022/19/2013GS-9973rrCLL,MCL,iNHL,DLBLC
NCT0108804811/12/2010RituximabrrCLL or rrMCL or rr iNHL
Bendamustine
Ofatumumab
Fludarabine
Everolimus
Bortezomib
Chlorambucil
ÿLenalidomide
Rituximab + Chlorambucil
Lenalidomide + Rituximab

At first glance this looks a lot like the list of trials listed for ibrutinib, and it is very similar. We see multiple combo trials with anti-CD20 mAbs (rituximab, ofatumumab), and several trials with Celgene’s lenalidomide (Revlimid), approved for MM. Again the choice of lenalidomide is interesting. The combination makes good sense biologically – lenalidomide should impact cells lodged in the bone marrow, where they would otherwise be resistant to anti-CD20 or idelalisib therapy. The question is how well is this combination therapy tolerated. The other interesting observation is that there are a fair number of trials in which the partner therapy is a chemotherapy (fludarabine, chlorambucil, bendamustine). Now these are all careful targeted to specific lymphomas in the last trial listed, NCT01088048, and you can look at the details here. I think this suggests that in addition to the high impact rituximab combinations, GILD is banking on seeing good efficacy in combination with standard chemotherapies. If so this will give the company an effective marketing and pricing edge.

Finally, and sensibly, we see a clinical trial in combination with Gilead’s own Syk inhibitor GS-9973. Gilead has advanced this inhibitor while also conducting a well publicized hunt for a BTK inhibitor to license, apparently without luck (and really, there just aren’t many good ones). The idea here is to knock out the Syk signaling to BTK, thus mimicking the effect of ibrutinib, in combination with eliminating PI3Kdelta signaling. If the combo is synergistic, and (importantly) well tolerated, GILD may be sitting on a unique therapeutic option. Again thinking of the marketplace, this could provide leverage with physicians and payers, although no one is suggesting that Gilead won’t price a combo as high as possible, as shown by the recent pricing of its HCV cocktail – and that drug at least can induce outright cures.

This brings us to Celgene, who is attempting to build combination therapies for lymphoma that it can control. Celgene is well behind ibrutinib in their development of CC-292, acquired with the Avila deal. Recently however they have adjusted the dosing schedule (to twice a day: bid) and are seeing reasonable ORRs between 55 – 67% depending on dose, as reported at ASH. The bid dosing regimens produced sustained responses through 7 months.

What is so interesting about the Celgene program is shown in the following table.

DrugTrial NumberPhasedate filedCombinationIndication
CC-292NCT017665831b10/29/2012lenalinomiderr NHL
CC-292NCT01732861111/14/2012lenalinomiderr CLL, SCL
CC-292NCT01744626112/5/2012rituximabrr CLL, SCL
AVL-292NCT0135193515/10/2011nonerr NHL, CLL, WG
lenalinomideNCT014006851,2April/May 2011bendamustine/rituximabCLL
and
NCT01558167
lenalinomideNCT0193800139/5/2013rituximabrrNHL, rrFL
lenalinomideNCT0119957528/31/2010rituximabrr CLL
lenalinomideNCT0155677633/14/2012nonehigh risk CLL

What we see here is a nice focused effort on bringing forward CC-292 with perhaps lenalinomide. I don’t know the regulatory hurdles imposed since the withdrawal of lenalidomide from a CLL trial earlier this year (but please comment if you do), and so the issue may be moot, but the idea is a good one – to rationally develop combinations that are wholly owned.

We can make some predictions.

JNJ will buy a clinical stage compound suitable for further development with ibrutinib. This could be an antibody targeting B cell lymphoma antigens (CD20, CD22, CD19, etc) or another small molecule asset.

Celgene will make similar moves but may take assets at a slightly earlier stage, maybe IND ready or Phase 1.

Gilead will continue development of its Syk inhibitor, but I suspect will also license clinical stage assets in order to diversify around idelalisib.

Assuming success in the early stage studies in relapsed/refractory patient populations, Gilead will aggressively position idelalisib for use with chemo in treatment naive patients.

If you have different ideas feel free to send those along. Next there will be just a short take on Abbvie, as they are on a slightly different course.

stay tuned.

Oncology drug development questions for 2014: Combination therapies for B cell lymphoma

Part 1 – Ibrutinib and the development of combination therapies for B cell lymphoma

For physicians, patients, investors etc, major medical conferences are a way to check in on the progress of a company’s drugs in the context of the medical communities response to the data, i.e. the buzz. Negative buzz is generally pretty straightforward, reflecting poor results or unexpected toxicity in a clinical trial. Positive buzz should be (and often isn’t) more nuanced, as positive data, while great to see, need to be placed into the context of evolving clinical practice and the ever-present competition for patients. Results, positive or negative, need to be vetted for robustness: clinical trial stage, sample size, design; endpoint design; therapeutic window (the dose range between efficacy and toxicity); and duration of response.

Last year saw extraordinary advances in the treatment of B cell lymphoma, particularly the Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas (NHL) that include well known cancers like Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), indolent NHL (iNHL) and many others. This advances included small molecule therapeutics that target critical drivers of lymphoma cell proliferation and survival, novel antibodies (“naked”, enhanced, payload carrying), ex vivo modified patient T cells that attack lymphomas upon reinjection, and a variety of other modalities. It was interesting to see that the companies getting the most buzz varied during the year, with different companies “winning” different conferences. Be assured that in this context, winning reflects wins for the stock price! Winning in the medical marketplace is a whole different story.

With the medical marketplace in mind, a reasonable question for 2014 pops up when you step back and look at the breadth of the B cell lymphoma therapeutic landscape.

How will biopharmaceutical companies, physicians, and payers develop and use combinations of these therapies?

Lets think about the possible combinations. The most obvious are those that we are already seeing widely used, such as the combination of a small molecule inhibitor with a tumor-targeting antibody. One example is the combination of ibrutinib, a BTK inhibitor, and rituximab, an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody. Ibrutinib was approved for treatment of relapsed/treatment refractory (rr) MCL in November 2013 under the brand name Imbruvica, and approval for rrCLL is expected soon (these indications were filed for approval together, in August 2013). Patients with relapsed/refractory small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) were included in the CLL arm of the clinical trial.

CLL is a good example of the power of combination therapy. Rituximab monotherapy in rrCLL/SLL produced overall response rates (ORR) in the range of 55% and a complete response rate (CR) of somewhere under 10%, depending on the trial. Note here that ORR and CR refer to assessments of tumor burden at a specific and predetermined time after treatment is initiated. A CR does not indicate a cure but rather is a measure of the degree of efficacy. The ORR and CR measurements are most meaningful when presented in the context of duration of response (DOR) or in the context of progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS).

Monotherapy of rrCLL/SLL with ibrutinib produced ORRs ranging from 70-80%, with CRs ranging from 0 – 10%. Duration of response was good, and there was a measurable impact on PFS. There are different classes of rrCLL patients, based on cytogenetic status. High risk CLL patients commonly carry a deletion on chromosome 17 (del17p) and/or other abnormalities. Such mutations predict poor prognosis for these patients. Last April, the FDA granted Ibrutinib Breakthrough Therapy Designation for high-risk rrCLL/SLL del17p patients based on achievement of a 50% ORR in these patients when given ibrutinib monotherapy.

Now to the combination of ibrutinib and rituximab (and a chemo agent, bendamustine). As discussed in earlier coverage of the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting (ASH), linked here, treatment of high-risk CLL patients with the combination therapy produced an ORR of 95%, with 78% maintaining response through 18 months. While only 10% of the responses were designated CR, the long duration of the partial responses (PR) was a dramatic result.

The cost of Rituxan treatment for B cell lymphoma is generally quoted at ~10K/month but billed to insurance at about 5K monthly, so we are somewhere between 60-120K per year per patient in the US. Imbruvica will cost 130K per year per patient in the US. Note here that neither therapy, given alone, is considered curative. We don’t know yet what the durable remission rate will be for the combination therapy, where we define durable remission as no detectable disease (in the blood, lymph nodes, bone marrow) without maintenance therapy. Curative treatment means no disease in a patient who no longer requires drugs.

So it’s fair to say that these combination therapies will be very expensive and may need to be used for a long time. Given the current climate of cost control, especially outside of the US, what are companies doing to anticipate eventual pushback on premium pricing?

Just a quick reminder that Imbruvica (ibrutinib) is a Pharmacyclics/Johnson&Johnson (J&J) product and the Rituxan is a Roche product and further, that Roche has a next generation anti-CD20 antibody, obinutuzumab, recently approved for the treatment of CLL (including as first line treatment), under the brand name Gazyva. This antibody given in combination with a cheap chemotherapy agent, chlorambucil, produced an ORR = 78% and a CR of 28% in the phase 3 trial. This antibody was significantly better than Rituxan (rituximab) plus chlorambucil in the same clinical trial (ORR = 65%, CR = 7%). The trial was done in rrCLL patients including high-risk patients defined as del17p.

Another anti-CD20 antibody, ofatumumab from GSK, has been approved for second-line use in rrCLL. This drug, priced at 120K yearly, ran into reimbursement pressure in Europe and the UK as not showing sufficient benefit to justify the price. This is a hint of price pressures to come.

This is where I think things get really interesting. I spent some quality time on clinicaltrials.gov, trying to understand how companies competing in the B cell lymphoma space are looking ahead, the assumption being that one can do this by looking at the trials planned or underway for the top tier drugs. Many of the oral drugs in advanced development for B cell lymphomas are reviewed here.

Nearly all advanced oral drugs for B cell lymphoma have trials underway or planned with an anti-CD20 antibody. Most of these trials are done with rituximab, probably just reflecting the wide availability of this antibody. Perhaps some companies are sticking with rituximab in the belief that generic biosimilar forms of this antibody will become available in Europe (where it is now off-patent) and in the US (where patent protection expires in 2018), which may make combination therapy more widely available. The rituximab trials are not done in collaboration with Roche, with one notable exception which we will get to later.

There are 11 clinical trials listed as active that include ibrutinib with rituximab either alone or with various other agents. Some of these trials have already read out results:

TRIAL NUMBERPHASEDATE FILEDIBRUTINIB WITHINDICATION
NCT01980654210/24/2013rituximabuntreated FL
NCT0188056726/4/2013rituximabrrMCL
NCT0152051921/25/2012rituximabhigh risk CLL, SCL
NCT0161109035/15/2012rituximab/bendamustinerrCLL, rrSCL
NCT0177684031/24/2013rituximab/bendamustineuntreated MCL
NCT01479842111/1/2011rituximab/bendamustinerr DLBCL,MCL,iNHL
NCT0185575035/14/2013R-CHOPDLBCL-ABC
NCT0188687236/24/2013noneuntreated CLL
rituximab
v rituximab/bendamustine
NCT01974440310/28/2013R-CHOPrr iNHL
v rituximab/bendamustine
NCT0188685916/24/2013lenalidomiderrCLL, rrSCL
NCT0182956814/9/2013lenalidomide & rituximabrrFL
NCT0195549919/27/2013lenalidomide & rituximabrr iNHL

Note that FL is follicular lymphoma and DLBCL is diffuse large B cell lymphoma. DLBCL-ABC is a subtype. These are all types of B cell lymphomas. R-CHOP is rituximab plus a standard mixture of chemotherapeutic agents, and I may or may not have defined this correctly, suffice to say if it says CHOP then there is a potent mix of chemo being given; “v” means versus, that is, it is a comparator arm.

There are another seven or eight single agent ibrutinib trials also, but I did not include those here, so what we see all together is a full court press of clinical trials designed to show benefit of ibrutinib in multiple different B cell lymphomas, as first line or second line therapy. These trials will produce a tidal wave of data that, if positive, will by their sheer volume place ibrutinib at the top of the heap of B cell lymphoma oral agents. So, yes, I’m betting on Pharmacyclics (stock symbol PCYC) and J&J to win the marketplace, at least for the near term.

Ibrutinib development does not stop there. There are three trials with lenalidomide, also known as Revlimid, approved as second line therapy for multiple myeloma (MM). A monotherapy trial of lenalidomide in CLL was halted last year due to an increase in deaths seen in the active arm. Even at a reduced dose (I’m guessing here) the use of this agent plus ibrutinib plus rituximab seems risky. Also, the drug is owned by Celgene. So why conduct trials with lenalidomide at all? The answer to that question will be found in the list of clinical trials for CC-292, Celgene’s BTK inhibitor under development for B cell lymphoma.

But just to finish with ibrutinib. Here are the rest of the active clinical trials I could find:

TRIAL NUMBERPHASEDATE FILEDIBRUTINIB WITHINDICATION
NCT020131281,212/11/2013ublituximabCLL, MCL
NCT0157870734/11/2012v ofatumumabrrCLL
NCT012177491,210/7/2010ofatumumabCLL
NCT01478581211/18/2011nonerrMM
NCT0184172321/24/2013noner Hairy Cell leukemia
NCT019627921,29/27/2013carfilzomibMM

Ublituximab is a new anti-CD20 antibidy from TG Therapeutics and the clinical trial is being run by that company, not by J&J/PCYC. In contrast the ofatumumab trials, which are “active but not recruiting” are sponsored by Pharmacyclics.

Finally, just some tidbits. Ibrutinib presentations recently have included studies in some interesting new indications, particularly MM. There are two MM trials shown here, the second one being run in collaboration with Onyx Pharmaceuticals, whose proteosome inhibitor carfilzomib, has been approved for treatment of rrMM under the name Kyprolis.

I suspect we will see many more such collaborative efforts as the field matures.

Next up we will look at the efforts of two of the compounds seeking to compete with ibrutinib, Gilead’s idelalisib and Celgene’s CC-292.

Stay tuned.

LINKS TO THE #ASH13 ABSTRACT PREVIEW CHAPTERS @ SUGAR CONE BIO

ASH13 previews

Part 8.   ABT-199
Part 7.   CAR-T tech                        

Part 6b. new targets for Myelofibrosis           

Part 6a. Jak inhibitors in Myelofibrosis                       

Part 5.   Biologics for Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas              

Part 4.   New & noteworthy: CLL etc             

Part 3.   Btk and PI3K inhibitors for CLL      

Part 2.   Ibrutinib                              

Part 1.   Idelalisib

pre-ASH post on ADC technology:  here                         

Snapshots, 2013 American Society of Hematology Abstracts – New & Noteworthy

Part 4. Novel and exciting new pathways, drugs and combinations.

November 18, 2013

The American Society of Hematology Meeting will take place in New Orleans, December 7 – 10, 2013. The abstracts are available at http://www.hematology.org/Meetings/Annual-Meeting/Abstracts/5810.aspx

OK, finally coming to the end of our review of the small molecule, mostly oral, CLL drugs, highlighting a few impressive studies.

First, the Idelalisib plus Rituxan (Rtx) phase 3 results were posted to late-breaking abstracts (Abstract LBA6). The trial was run in high-risk rrCLL patients, comparing placebo/Rituxan to Idelalisib/Rituxan. The data are summarized here:

The trial was stopped early based on the impressive data, including doubling of survival at 24 weeks. Detailed results should be presented at ASH.

Back to the abstracts:

Karyopharm is presenting Phase 1 results of KPT-330 (Selinexor) in NHL/CLL patients (Abstract #90) and AML patients (Abstract #1440). KPT-330 is an inhibitor of the Exportin/Xpo1 protein, whose normal function is to export tumor suppressor proteins from the cell nucleus. Blocking export of tumor suppressor proteins keeps them active in the nucleus, and induces the death of tumor cells. Xpo1 is mutated in some lymphoma patients, and mutated Xpo1 is associated with poor patient outcome.

Patients with advanced NHL or rrCLL, having failed therapy with all available drug classes, were dosed with oral Selinexor. The cohorts include patients refractory to Ibrutinib therapy and refractory to Rituxan plus chemotherapy (R-CHOP). Patients were dosed between 3 – 30 mg/m2 for 8-10 doses per 4-week cycle (NCT01607892). Grade 3/4 AEs were common, including cytopenias. No MTD has been established and dose escalation is continuing. Remarkably, ORR = 80% for all patients that could be evaluated; 20% of patients had PD. These preliminary results in such a high-risk rrNHL/CLL patient population investigators are very encouraging and the investigators will present updated results at the meeting.

Vorinostat, the HDAC inhibitor from Merck, is worthy of notice. What we see in the Phase 1/2 trial is an approach similar to the one Merck used for the AKT inhibitor MK2206. In both cases, combination therapy is initiated very early in the clinical trial process. Abstract #4191 outlines a trial design in which previously untreated CLL/SLL patients are given Vorinostat plus fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and Rituxan (FCR) for 4-6 cycles of therapy, followed by treatment with Vorinostat plus Rituxan alone. Analysis of 22 patients that had completed the treatment cycle is presented. The ORR = 100%, with CR= 73%, PR = 22% and SD = 4.5%. AEs are generally cytopenias, and GI complications.

A second study (Abstract #3063) examines the effect of Vorinostat in the context of Rituxan and cladribine therapy. The investigators will update previous results of a 40 patient Phase 1 study in newly diagnosed MCL patients. The abstract details the impact of a cyclin D1 allele on response to therapy, which has been reported as an ORR = 100% and CR= 87%.

Vorinostat has been around for a long time (aka SAHA) and it is encouraging to see these applications. What is interesting about these studies is that intervention is early (i.e. these are previously untreated patients) and aggressive. In will be useful to look at the comparative data for FRC treatment alone in these patient populations, but the available (and preliminary) data suggest that the Vorinostat combinations are very effective.

Of interest will be data from studies in which more selective HDAC inhibitors are used in place of Vorinostat, and data from other classes of epigenetic modulators.

We will turn next to Biologics, coming up in Part 5.

SnapShots from the American Society of Hematology Abstracts, Part 1

November 15, 2013
The American Society of Hematology Meeting will take place in New Orleans, December 7 – 10, 2013. The abstracts are available at http://www.hematology.org/Meetings/Annual-Meeting/Abstracts/5810.aspx
Part 1. Small molecule PI3Kdelta inhibitor Idelalisib in the treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).
It is useful to remember that most CLL patients have indolent disease and are in a “watch and wait” mode with their physicians, who will not initiate treatment unless they see signs that the cancer is becoming active and/or the patient has one or more risk factors. Therefore in clinical trials the CLL patients are those at high risk. Typically “relapsed or refractory” CLL (rrCLL) patients have cytogenetic markers of poor prognosis (mutated p53, del(17p), del(11q), trisomy 12, mutated NOTCH1), or are patients who have failed multiple prior therapies (chemotherapy and/or antibody therapy such as Rituximab treatment), patients with “bulky” disease indicating lymph node and other lymphoid organ involvement, and patients with unmutated IGVH sequences. Often these high risk markers occur together. It is important to realize that at this time CLL is not considered a curable disease, and that the goal is therefore to increase median progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS), the latter referring to time until death.
That said, we are witnessing a remarkable time. Terrific new therapies are being developed, and physicians look forward to offering their patients a chance at a cure.
Lets start with a drug class I think has great promise, inhibitors that act downstream of B cell receptor (BCR) signaling. CLL is a B cell lymphoma, and is dependent on chronic activation of these signaling pathways. Here is a model to get us oriented, from the Onclive website:
Note that Syk, Btk and PI3K are upstream (relative to the cell surface and BCR) and therefore are critical components of the pathway. Drugs targeting each of these signaling kinases have been developed. AKT, mTOR and others, generally more familiar to us from the solid tumor literature, are further downstream.
There are four isoforms of PI3K relevant to the drug class: alpha, beta, delta and gamma. Different drugs have selectivity for one or more of the isoforms.
For treatment of CLL, the lead therapeutic in the class Idelalisib is a PI3Kdelta(d) selective inhibitor from Gilead. PI3Kd signaling is known to be essential for the activation, proliferation, survival and tissue homing activity of lymphoma cells. On October 9th a phase 3 CLL clinical trial of this drug was stopped ahead of schedule based on a positive risk/benefit assessment. The drug is also under New Drug Application (NDA) review for indolent Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma iNHL) based on results from multiple phase 3 trials. Idelalisib is trailing just a step behind Ibrutinib, a BTK inhibitor, in the approval process – Ibrutinib was approved for Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) on November 12th. Neither drug is approved for CLL, the most common lymphoma.
Both drugs have moved aggressively into combination therapy trials. Some of the early trials (phase 1 and 2) will report out interim data at ASH.
Abstract #4176 presents analyses of Idelalisib (IDELA) given in combination with Rituximab (Rtx) antibody therapy plus chemotherapy (B: bendamustine or C: chlorambucil) in high-risk rrCLL patients. Results are encouraging and shown in Table 1, where ORR = stable disease (SD) + partial response (PR) + complete response (CR). Its important to note that these are clinical trial terms and do not reflect outcomes, just observations at specific timepoints. Regardless we are looking for high % ORR, PR and CR. Importantly, the median duration of exposure was 18 months at the time of analysis, meaning that 18 months is the median amount of time patients have been exposed to drug without withdrawing due to toxicity, disease progression, or death. More importantly, the median duration of response (DOR) to therapy had not been reached within the 18 months (so that’s good, patients are still on drug and are still responding) nor had the median PFS been reached (so more patients have survived than have not survived). The IDELA-Rtx-C data are similar, just of shorter average duration with a median exposure = 7.7 months (I’m guessing here that this arm of the trial enrolled later). Also notable is the toxicity data from this trial, which tracked pretty consistently with the chemotherapy regimen. When the combination therapy included bendamustine, neutropenia was the defining toxicity, with > 60% of patients experiencing grade 3-4 neutropenia. When the combination therapy included chlorambucil, liver transaminase elevation was the defining toxicity, with > 21% of patients experiencing grade 3-4 liver toxicity. Its important to realize that these are severe, but manageable, toxicities for most patients.
Abstract 2878 presents a similar study, but in this case the combination therapy given with Idelalisib was limited to chemotherapy. Chemotherapy consisted of B: bendamustine, F: fludarabine or C: chlorambucil, given in standard doses. This trial was run in a heavily pre-treated patient population having a very poor prognosis. The data are very encouraging given the composition of the enrolled patient population (Table 1). The adverse events (AEs) were cytopenias and gastrointestinal tract (GI) disorders. This study demonstrates that Idelalisib has potent activity in combination with chemotherapy.
Abstract 4180 gives us data from an additional study, in which Idelalisib is paired with anti-CD20 antibody therapy (Table 1). As in the other studies the cohorts were comprised of a high risk patient population. This was a small phase 1 study with an extension arm, enrolling 40 patients. This study produced some sobering results that remind us how serious a disease aggressive CLL is, and how potent the drugs treating this disease have to be. Notably, 25% of patients did not enter the extension study due to disease progression, 6 patients died. A further 23% did not enter the extension study due to AEs. These data remind us that response rates readout at a specific pre-determined time during the trial, and do not reflect outcomes. Regardless the median PFS and DOR for all patients (N=40) and were 20 and 19 months, respectively. Median overall survival (OS) had not been reached.
The phase 3 study mentioned at the outset, which was stopped early due to significant evidence of clinical benefit, was very similar to, if much larger then, the Phase 1 study presented in abstract 4180. We don’t know much about the trial data yet, but Gilead’s press release states that the “Phase 3 study … evaluating idelalisib in previously-treated … CLL patients who are not fit for chemotherapy will be stopped early  … based on a predefined interim analysis showing highly statistically significant efficacy for the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in patients receiving idelalisib plus rituximab compared to those receiving rituximab alone. The safety profile of idelalisib was acceptable and consistent with prior experience in combination with rituximab in previously treated CLL.”
I think the general takeaway here is that a high proportion of those patients who respond did well over time. The fact that they did so without additional chemotherapy is very encouraging. PFS in either not being reached or is reached at 20 months or so. This suggests that impact on OS will be significant for all of the drug combinations presented. 
 
Additional analyses from Phase 1b and 2 studies were presented in abstract #1632. This abstract presents data comparing responses among CLL patients with high risk prognostic markers (del(17p) or TP53 mutation, del(11q), IGHV mutation and NOTCH1 mutation) to CLL patients without these markers. rrCLL patients given Idelalisib monotherapy or combination therapies responded equally well to treatment regardless of the presence or absence of these critical genetic markers of disease aggressiveness. That is a very important result that suggests great potential for CLL therapy with Idelalisib. The table is below.
 
Note that the response rates in the phase 2 Idelalisib + Rtx trial in previously untreated (i.e. newly diagnosed) patients are quite high, and this is exactly what you want to see as to drug moves to treat patients earlier in their disease course.
Next up is a review the Ibrutinib data in the same disease, and also a quick look at the other therapies in these drug classes.