Author: lymphomaprogram

Located on the Upper East Side of New York City, the Lymphoma Program at Weill Cornell Medical College/NewYork Presbyterian Hospital is internationally recognized for our efforts to enable patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease and related disorders to have the best possible clinical outcome, including cure when possible.

New Clinical Trial: Ibrutinib in Relapsed/Refractory CLL/SLL with 17p Deletion

Update: this study is closed to enrollment. 

The Weill Cornell Lymphoma Program is now recruiting men and women with relapsed or refractory Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)/Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL) with 17p deletion for a new clinical trial evaluating the experimental drug ibrutinib. The study sponsor is Pharmacyclics, and the principal investigator at Weill Cornell is Dr. Richard Furman. For more information about the study, please call Amelyn Rodgriguez, RN at (212) 746-1362 or e-mail Amelyn at amr2017@med.cornell.edu.

Key Eligibility
  • Men and women age 18 and older
  • Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)/Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL) with 17p deletion
  • Relapsed or refractory disease after receiving at least one prior line line of systemic therapy which included at least two cycles of chemotherapy or immunotherapy for CLL/SLL
  • Detailed eligibility reviewed when you contact the study team
Study Details

Ibrutinib (also known as PCI-32765) is a type of drug called a kinase inhibitor; the drug blocks an enzyme that helps cancer cells live and grow. By blocking the enzyme, it is possible that ibrutinib will kill cancer cells or stop them from growing.

The purpose of the study is to determine whether ibrutinib is safe and effective in treating CLL/SLL with 17p deletion.

Treatment Plan

All study participants will receive ibrutinib; there is no placebo in this study. Participants will take 3 capsules by mouth once a day and continue on treatment as long as they are responding to therapy and not experiencing unacceptable side effects.

Ibrutinib Granted Third Breakthrough Status for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL)

On April 8, the FDA granted a third Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the investigational agent ibrutinib. Previously, receiving breakthrough status for the treatment of patients with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia and mantle cell lymphoma, the drug has now achieved breakthrough status as a monotherapy for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) in patients with deletion of the short arm of chromosome 17 (deletion 17p). This is an especially important development as CLL and SLL affected carriers of the deletion of chromosome 17 mutation are prone to poor prognoses, often due to their poor responses to chemoimmunotherapy.

Ibrutinib, an oral drug designed to specifically target an enzyme called Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), has demonstrated promising activity in multiple phase 1 and 2 clinical trials performed at Weill Cornell Medical College and around the world. As one of the leading institutions in the study of ibrutinib since its first testing 3 years ago, Weill Cornell is uniquely positioned in its experience with ibrutinib.

Currently, there are ongoing ibrutinib clinical trials at the Weill Cornell Lymphoma Program open to patients with CLL and SLL. Additional clinical trials for Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia and mantle cell lymphoma with ibrutinib are ongoing.

Please stay updated with our clinical trials listing for forthcoming trials involving ibrutinib and the Cornell Lymphoma Program website for further clinical research updates.

Rally for Medical Research: Help Protect Funding for Medical Research

On April 8, 2012 thousands of individuals and nearly 200 partnering programs, including representatives from the American Society of Hematology (ASH), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) gathered at the Carnegie Library grounds in Washington, D.C. for the Rally for Medical Research. Here medical research supporters sought to raise public awareness over the importance of federally funded medical research. This need has been magnified by the March 1 sequestration mandated cuts to all areas of the federal budget, and a decade long decline in funding for the National Institute of Health (NIH).

As ASH wrote, this decline in money for medical research is not a new development:

“Research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in serious jeopardy. NIH’s inflation-adjusted budget today is almost 20 percent lower than it was in FY 2003…Under sequestration, the NIH budget will be cut by an additional $1.6 billion over the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2013. While the impact of these cuts may not be felt all at once or immediately, the harm caused to bio-medical research will be devastating- progress toward cures for deadly diseases and efforts to prevent costly chronic conditions will be slowed…”

Besides these  budgetary concerns, ASCO President Sandra M. Swain noted the human cost of such budget cuts, stressing the impressive strides made in cancer research due to federal funding:

“As a direct result of the federal investment in cancer research, we understand more about cancers than at any point in human history. This understanding of cancer at the molecular level has created unprecedented opportunities to slow the growth of cancer diseases. As a country, we can be proud that two of three people in the U.S. with cancer live at least 5 years after their diagnosis. This is up from one of two in the 1970s before the passage of the National Cancer Act. Since the 1990s, the nation’s cancer death rate has dropped 18 percent, reversing decades of increases. More than 13 million people in the U.S. are cancer survivors.”

Considering these new fiscal realities, the researchers and clinicians in the Lymphoma Program at Weill Cornell Medical College are adjusting accordingly. They will continue to do all that they can to deliver the latest in ground breaking research and clinical care.

Click here to use the ASH advocacy tool to contact your Representative and Senators about protecting medical research. Contact information for individual Representatives and Senators can be found here and here.