Abstract Background: Despite the efficacy of covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors (cBTKi) in R/R MCL, patients (pts) ultimately discontinue treatment due to intolerance or development of resistance and disease relapse. Pirtobrutinib is a highly selective, non-covalent BTKi that inhibits BTK with low nM potency throughout the daily dosing interval. Pirtobrutinib was safe and effective in the phase 1/2 BRUIN study in pts with R/R B-cell malignancies, including those previously treated with a BTKi. Pirtobrutinib is approved in the EU for adults with R/R MCL after prior treatment with a BTKi (EMA Conditional Approval, Oct 2023), and in the USA for adults with R/R MCL after ≥ 2 lines of systemic therapy, including a BTKi (FDA Accelerated Approval, Jan 2023).Here, we report the final results from the phase 1/2 BRUIN study (NCT03740529), with a follow-up period of up to 5 yrs, focusing on the efficacy and safety of pirtobrutinib in all R/R MCL pts. Methods: Pts with R/R MCL who received ≥1 prior lines of therapy (including BTKi) were eligible for treatment with pirtobrutinib monotherapy. Key endpoints included overall response rate (ORR), duration of response (DOR) and progression-free survival (PFS), all assessed by independent review committee (IRC) per Lugano 2014 criteria (presented here) and investigator, overall survival (OS), and safety. Pts were included across the range of doses evaluated in dose escalation and expansion (25-300 mg/day). A data cutoff on 27 January 2025 was utilized, with a median study follow-up of 17.5 months (range, 0.5-69.6). Results: Among the 166 pts with R/R MCL, 153 (92%) received the pirtobrutinib approved dose of 200 mg/day, 152 (92%) had received prior cBTKi, of which 128 (84.2%) discontinued any prior cBTKi due to progressive disease (PD), and 15 (9.9%) due to toxicity. The cBTKi-pre-treated pts had a median age of 70 yrs (range, 46-88), 52% had intermediate-risk and 28.3% had high-risk sMIPI scores. The median number of prior lines of therapy was 3 (range 1-9), with most pts having received a prior anti-CD20 antibody (96.7%) and chemotherapy (90.1%). Additional prior therapies included hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (21.7%; 19.7% auto and 4.6% allo), BCL-2 inhibitor (15.8%), CAR-T cell therapy (8.6%). As of the data cutoff, 11 (7.2%) pts who received a prior cBTKi and 6 (42.9%) cBTKi naïve pts remained on treatment. The cBTKi pre-treated pts had an ORR of 49.3% (95% CI, 41.1-57.6), including 15.8% complete responses (CR) (n=24) and 33.6% partial responses (PR) (n=51). The 75 responding pretreated pts had a median DOR of 21.6 months (95% CI, 9.2-27.2) at a median follow-up of 24 months. The ORR among 128 pts who had discontinued any prior cBTKi due to PD and 15 pts who discontinued due to toxicity was 43.0% and 93.3%, respectively. The median PFS and OS for cBTKi pre-treated pts were 5.6 months (95% CI, 5.3-9.2) and 23.9 months (95% CI, 17.3-51.5), respectively. Fourteen pts (9.2%) were censored for PFS due to subsequent anticancer therapy without documented PD, including 8 pts who received CAR-T. The cBTKi naïve pts (n=14) had an ORR of 85.7% (95% CI, 57.2-98.2), including 50.0% CR (n=7) and 35.7% PR (n=5). The 12 responding naïve pts had a median DOR of 42.7 months (95% CI, 25.8-NE) at a median follow-up of 43 months. The median PFS and OS in the cBTKi naïve pts were 44.6 months (95% CI, 16.7-NE) and not reached (95% CI, 33.5-NE), respectively. Among all R/R MCL pts (n=166), the most frequent treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAE), regardless of attribution, were fatigue (31.9%), diarrhea (22.9%), anemia (18.1%), and dyspnea (18.1%). The most common Grade ≥3 TEAE was neutropenia/neutrophil count decreased (13.3%), and the rate of Grade ≥3 infections was 21.1%. Grade ≥3 hemorrhage/hematoma (2.4%) and all-grade atrial fibrillation/flutter (3.6%) were infrequent. In total, 13 (7.8%) pts had a fatal TEAE, with 4 (2.4%) classified as infections. Overall, 8 pts (4.8%) had treatment-related AE leading to dose reductions, and 6 (3.6%) had treatment-related AE leading to pirtobrutinib discontinuation. Conclusion: Pirtobrutinib continues to demonstrate efficacy in pts with heavily pre-treated R/R MCL including both those who previously received a cBTKi and those who were BTKi-naïve. The safety profile of pirtobrutinib remained favorable with a low-rate of dose reductions/discontinuations due to drug-related toxicity. No new safety signals were identified after up to 5 yrs of follow-up.
Cohen et al. (2025) studied this question.