Long-Term Follow up of Blinatumomab in Older Patients with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

TL;DR

This study follows older patients with B-cell ALL treated with blinatumomab, showing some long-term remission and survival outcomes.

Contribution

The paper provides a long-term follow-up of blinatumomab use in older adults with newly diagnosed B-cell ALL.

Findings

All five patients achieved complete remission after one cycle of blinatumomab.

Two patients survived for over 4 years, while others relapsed or died within 20 months.

Three patients became MRD-negative, indicating potential for durable responses.

Abstract

Older adults who are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and are treated with chemotherapy generally have poor outcomes. Blinatumomab is a CD19/CD3 bispecific T-cell engager that has been approved for the treatment of B-cell ALL in the relapsed/refractory setting or in patients with minimal residual disease (MRD) positivity. We previously reported on a small cohort of older adults with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome negative B-cell ALL who were treated with blinatumomab monotherapy in the first line setting. This is a long-term follow up of those patients and their clinical courses. All five patients achieved complete remission (CR) after one cycle of blinatumomab, and three were MRD-negative. Two patients completed three cycles of blinatumomab, two patients completed four cycles of blinatumomab, and one patient completed 17 cycles of blinatumomab total. In the last four years, four of these patients had relapsed disease requiring additional therapy. Two patients are alive after 61 months and 57 months since their first cycle of blinatumomab. Two of the patients died at 10 months and one died at 20 months. Here we describe the long-term clinical courses of these patients.

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