Alemtuzumab in chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment: retrospective analysis of outcome according to cytogenetics
Summary: Alemtuzumab is effective in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with 17p deletion, which responds poorly to chemotherapeutic agents. Our retrospective study evaluated the benefit of alemtuzumab monotherapy in unselected patients with advanced CLL, categorized by cytogenetic profile. Data were collected from 74 consecutive who had received alemtuzumab. Median of previous therapies was 2. The incidence of cytogenetic abnormalities was: trisomy 12, 10%; 13q deletion, 13%; 11q deletion 25%; 17p deletion, 26%; none of these, 26%. The overall response rate was 65% (11% complete remission, 54% partial remission) in the whole cohort. From start of alemtuzumab therapy, median progression-free survival was 217 days, median time to alternative treatment was 287 days, and median overall survival was 999 days in the total cohort, respectively. Alemtuzumab was effective across all cytogenetic categories evaluated. There were no statistically significant differences between subgroups in the level of efficacy.