Real‐world comparative effectiveness of venetoclax‐obinutuzumab versus Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors for frontline chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Summary Real‐world evidence comparing clinical outcomes between venetoclax and Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKis) in patients with frontline (1 L) chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is lacking. We compared treatment effectiveness of 1 L venetoclax plus obinutuzumab (VenO) versus BTKi‐based regimens. This retrospective observational study using Optum Clinformatics Data Mart® included adult patients with CLL (≥2 outpatient or ≥1 inpatient claim) who received VenO or BTKi‐based regimens in 1 L (1/2019–9/2022). Baseline characteristics were balanced using stabilised inverse probability weighting. Outcomes included duration of therapy (DoT), persistence, time to next treatment or death (TTNT‐D), and time off‐treatment. Among 1506 eligible patients (VenO: 203; BTKi: 1303), the median follow‐up duration was 12.6 (VenO) and 16.2 months (BTKi). Median DoT for VenO was 12.3 months; persistence remained higher in VenO versus BTKi through expected 1 L fixed treatment duration. Median TTNT‐D was not reached for VenO; however, more VenO‐ versus BTKi‐treated patients had not switched therapies/experienced death through Month 12 (87.1% vs. 75.3%). Among patients that discontinued, median time to discontinuation was 11.7 vs. 5.9 months for VenO versus BTKi and median time off‐treatment was 11.3 vs. 4.3 months. In this real‐world study, VenO was associated with better effectiveness outcomes than BTKi‐based regimens in 1 L CLL.