Evaluation of the Role of Ibrutinib as Monotherapy Treatment in Elderly Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients

Background: In the Western world, the leukemia most prevalent form is chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), with an annual frequency of 4.2/100,000, or 30% of all leukemia cases. This work aim was to assess the ibrutinib efficacy (depth, objective response rate, and frequency), survival parameters, and tolerability as a monotherapy TN elderly CLL patients in 1 year. Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 20 CLL elderly cases at the Clinical Oncology Department at Tanta University. All patients were subjected to baseline evaluation eastern cooperative oncology group (ECOG), performance status (PS) score, routine laboratory investigations as baseline immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region mutation status, complete blood count and differential count, Beta-2 Microglobulin Levels as a Prognostic Biomarker for CLL, staging classifications including RAI (American classification) for CLL and Binet (Europe staging systems) for CLL. Results: The mean 1-year OS was significantly different among different ECOG PS scores (P=0.011), being significantly elevated in ECOG PS 0 and PS 1 cases. The mean 1-year OS was significantly different between high and very high risk cases regarding to the international prognostic index score (P=0.017). Conclusions: Single-agent ibrutinib demonstrated remarkable efficacy in treating CLL in elderly patients, achieving a 1-year OS rate of 95% with effective responses and a tolerable side effect profile.