Ibrutinib in Waldenström's macroglobulinemia: revamping the landscape
Mené sur 31 patients atteints de la maladie de Waldenström (âge médian : 67 ans), cet essai international de phase III évalue l'efficacité, du point de vue du taux de réponse globale, et la toxicité de l'ibrutinib, après l'échec d'un traitement par rituximab
In The Lancet Oncology, Meletios Dimopoulos and colleagues1 report that the activity of the BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib, in patients with rituximab-refractory Waldenström's macroglobulinemia is not only remarkable, but eclipses the other available treatment options. When attempting to place these results into perspective, a couple of adages regarding clinical trials come to mind. First, “the better the therapy, the less relevant the prognostic factors and the more important the predictive factors.” In almost all B-cell malignancies, including Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, an anti-CD20 antibody, generally rituximab, has become a standard component of most first-line treatment strategies because this drug improves progression-free survival and, often overall survival.
The Lancet Oncology 2016