Novel combination therapies for the treatment of CLL

Francesco Forconi, MD, DM, PhD, FRCPath, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK, discusses the future treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), drawing focus on novel combination therapies. Dr Forconi first highlights the importance of combining Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors and BH3 mimetics, and the potential benefit of adding anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies. Dr Forconi then mentions the possibility of bispecifics and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (R/R) disease. To conclude, Dr Forconi highlights the promise of second and third generation BTK inhibitors in the treatment of R/R CLL, drawing focus on the promising results observed with the use of zanubrutinib in the ALPINE study (NCT03734016). This interview took place at the 62nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society for Haematology (BSH) 2022, in Manchester, UK.