Role of Acalabrutinib in Aggressive B-Cell Lymphoma Subgroups

Mark Roschewski, MD, senior clinician and clinical director in the Lymphoid Malignancies Branch at the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, discusses the role Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor acalabrutinib (Calquence) has in aggressive B-cell lymphoma subgroups.

According to Roschewski, BTK inhibitors seem to work quickly in this population. Benefit has been seen in the relapse setting. Acalabrutinib is similar to ibrutinib (Imbruvica), according to Roschewski, but is has more specificity, as it is given in higher concentration. This means the occupancy is higher and will theoretically have fewer off target effects. This can help limit some potential activity. 

0:08 | BTK inhibitors do seem like they have a role, they work very quickly. And there's many patients that benefit from them, you can see that in the relapse setting. Acalabrutinib is very similar to ibrutinib. But it has more specificity. So, it binds to the similar epitope of the receptor. But it gets higher concentrations because it's given twice a day. And so, the BTK occupancy is higher. And because of that selectivity, there is this theoretical benefit that it will have fewer off target effects. So that'll limit potentially some of the toxicity that is seen. And there is some evidence that is true. And so that's its potential benefit here.