Wilmot Plays Role in Latest FDA-Approved CLL Therapy

This week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the use of the drug ibrutinib to treat patients who have chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) – with UR Medicine’s James P. Wilmot Cancer Center participating in research that supported accelerated approval of the drug.

Paul Barr, M.D., director of the Clinical Trials Office at Wilmot, also will be part of the national team that presents ibrutinib data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting this spring.

Investigators are impressed with the drug’s potential to help CLL patients, particularly those who have relapsed despite trying other therapies. The national phase III study that involved Wilmot patients was called RESONATE, comparing ibrutinib to another drug, ofatumumab. It was stopped early, in January, after the ibrutinib patients showed significant improvement.