Evaluating Tumor Lysis Syndrome in CLL/SLL Treated With Venetoclax

Yannis K. Valtis, MD, second-year fellow in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, provides background on a single-institution, retrospective cohort study which assessed laboratory and clinical tumor lysis syndrome in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).

The study evaluated patients who were given commercial venetoclax (Venetoclax) in any line of treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020.

Read part 1: https://www.targetedonc.com/view/real-world-findings-on-tls-prevention-and-management-with-venetoclax-in-cll

Read part 2: https://www.targetedonc.com/view/clinical-insights-on-tls-prophylaxis-with-venetoclax-in-cll

Transcription:

0:09 | This is a project that Mark Geyer, MD, reached out to me with… and has to do with the use of venetoclax in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is one of the more common leukemias; it affects a lot of [patients]. One of the ways we treat it is with venetoclax either alone or, more commonly, in combination with other medications. It is 1 of the treatments that tends to work well for [patients]. One of the advantages of venetoclax-based treatment is that it can be time-limited, which means that the patient can take it for about a year and then have an interval where the patient does not need to be treated. That is something that several patients, especially younger patients, tend to value, this ability to stay off treatment for hopefully several years for this disease that otherwise sometimes necessitates a kind of continuous lifelong treatment.

1:08 | One of the issues with venetoclax-based treatments is that venetoclax does have the risk of causing tumor lysis syndrome, which is a medical syndrome where the tumor cells are dying quickly, and they release different substances into the bloodstream that can be dangerous to the patient if not managed appropriately. What we set out to do is to look at a cohort of patients that were treated at [Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center], outside of clinical trials, to see what is happening in the real world, not just in the highly monitored setting of clinical trials, and tried to figure out, of everyone who received venetoclax for CLL, how many [patients] ended up developing tumor lysis syndrome among those [patients], and among those [patients], how did they do? Did anyone need to get hospitalized? Did anyone need to get a high level of care? That was kind of the motivation for the project.

REFERENCE:

Valtis Y, Nemirovsky D, Derkach A, et al. Real world incidence, prevention, and management of tumor lysis syndrome in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with venetoclax in the inpatient and outpatient settings. J Clin Oncol. 2024, 42(16): 7045. doi:10.1200/JCO.2024.42.16_suppl.7045