Limited Following of Best Practices for CLL Observed in the Real-World Setting

Anthony Mato, MD, MSCE, a hematologic oncologist and director of the CLL Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses an observational registry study of real-world prognostic biomarker testing, treatment patterns, and treatment dosing in a pool of 1461 patients with either chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic leukemia.

The uniqueness of performing a registry study is that it provides the opportunity to see if oncology practices are following the recommendations of governing bodies like the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the International Workshop on CLL, says Mato. Also, with a large collection of new data being released at medical conferences each year, prospectively evaluating the field can show how the latest treatment strategies are being implemented.

Results from the study were eye-opening, Mato explains. It was shown that a small proportion of patients treated in the real-world had the recommended prognostic biomarker testing. Because of this lack of testing, oncologists made treatment decisions that would not be considered the standard in today’s treatment landscape. Instead of administering ibrutinib (Imbruvica) or another targeted therapy to patients with del(17p) or TP53-mutated disease, the data showed that oncologists gave chemoimmunotherapy, Mato notes.