Grade 3 or greater adverse events include anemia in 12%, and pneumonia and thrombocytopenia in 8% each. Slightly more than half of all patients (58.1%) had a serious adverse event.
The investigators noted that voxtalisib’s short plasma half-life may explain the drug’s lack of efficacy against the aggressive lymphomas and CLL/SLL. Longer-acting formulations of the drug or more frequent dosing might address this problem, although the latter solution could be challenging for patients to follow, the investigators acknowledged.
In light of the results, no further studies of voxtalisib in CLL are planned, thought investigation of the drug alone or in combination with chemoimmunotherapy is warranted for patients with follicular lymphoma, the investigators wrote.
The study was funded by Sanofi. Dr. Brown reported consulting for Janssen, Gilead, Celgene, Sun BioPharma, Novartis, AbbVie, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Astellas, RedX, Pharmacyclics, Genentech/Roche, Verastem, and TG Therapeutics, and grants from Gilead and Sun BioPharma.
SOURCE: Brown J et al. Lancet Haematol. 2018 Mar 14. doi: 10.1016/S2352-3026(18)30030-9.