Dr. Jabbour Discusses Blinatumomab in ALL

Elias Jabbour, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses blinatumomab (Blincyto) in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Blinatumomab has shown a significant impact on the treatment landscape of ALL in the last few years. In July 2017, the FDA granted a full approval to blinatumomab as a treatment for adults and children with relapsed/refractory B-cell precursor ALL, regardless of Philadelphia chromosome status. In March 2018, the FDA granted an accelerated approval to blinatumomab for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with B-cell precursor ALL who are in remission but still have minimal residual disease (MRD).

Jabbour says that among patients with MRD-positive ALL in hematologic complete remission (CR), the response rate to blinatumomab was 80%. An improvement in both progression-free survival and overall survival has been observed with these patients who have responded to blinatumomab. These data came from the BLAST study, which was a single-arm trial of up to 4 cycles of blinatumomab for the treatment of patients with B-cell precursor ALL in CR or CR with partial platelet recovery and MRD >0.1%.