Outcome of patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia after blinatumomab failure: No change in the level of CD19 expression. Issue 3 (23rd December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jabbour, Elias; Düll, Johannes; Yilmaz, Musa; Khoury, Joseph D.; Ravandi, Farhad; Jain, Nitin; Einsele, Hermann; Garcia‐Manero, Guillermo; Konopleva, Marina; Short, Nicholas J.; Thompson, Philip A.; Wierda, William; Daver, Naval; Cortes, Jorge; O'brien, Susan; Kantarjian, Hagop; Topp, Max S.
• Is Part Of: American journal of hematology. Volume 93:Issue 3(2018:Mar.)
• Page Start: 371
• Page End: 374
• Publication Date: 2017-12-23
• Subjects: Hematology -- Periodicals; 616.15
• DOI: 10.1002/ajh.24987
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0361-8609

Abstract

Abstract: Blinatumomab, a bi‐specific T‐cell engaging CD3‐CD19 antibody construct, has shown significant activity in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) B‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Despite this improvement, most patients relapse. Here, we describe the outcome of 68 patients with R/R ALL after failure of blinatumomab therapy: 38 (56%) blinatumomab refractory; 30 (44%) relapsing after initial response. After a median follow‐up of 49 months, 9 (13%) patients remained alive. The median overall survival after blinatumomab failure was 5.2 months. At the time of failure, among 61 patients evaluated for immunophenotype, 56 (92%) had CD19‐positive blasts; only five (8%) had ALL recurrence with CD19‐negative disease. Two patients progressed with lower CD19 expression. In summary, the outcome of patients with R/R ALL after blinatumomab failure is poor and treatment of these patients remains an unmet medical need. Our findings indicate that blinatumomab therapy would not exclude a significant number of patients from the potential benefit of subsequent CD19‐directed therapies such as chimeric antigen receptor T‐cell therapy.