- Castro, Januario E;
- Lengerke-Diaz, Paula A;
- Lujan, Juliana Velez;
- Choi, Michael Y;
- Moreno-Cortes, Eider F;
- Forero, Jose V;
- Garcia-Robledo, Juan Esteban;
- Jacobs, Chaja;
- McCarthy, Colin;
- Heinen, Alaina;
- Amaya-Chanaga, Carlos I;
- Kipps, Thomas J
- Editor(s): Matutes, Estella M
Ibrutinib-based therapies are costly and require continuous administration. We hypothesized combining BTK inhibition with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies would yield deep remissions allowing discontinuation. We enrolled 32 therapy-naïve CLL patients to receive ibrutinib plus obinutuzumab, followed by single-agent ibrutinib. Patients could discontinue ibrutinib after 36 months with sustained complete response (CR). We evaluated treatment safety, efficacy, and outcomes after ibrutinib discontinuation. The overall response rate was 100%, 28% achieved a CR, and 12.5% achieved bone marrow undetectable minimal residual disease. At a three-year median follow-up, 91% remain in remission with 100% overall survival. Five patients in sustained CR stopped ibrutinib and have not progressed. Eight non-CR patients discontinued for other reasons, with only two progressing. The treatment was safe, with a lower IRR rate. All patients responded to treatment with longer time-to-progression after discontinuation of ibrutinib. Our data support the evaluation of ibrutinib discontinuation strategies in more extensive clinical trials (https://Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02315768).