Leukemia in press

Evaluation of bleeding events in patients receiving acalabrutinib therapy.

Kumar PS, Wiczer T, Rosen L, Pollauf AJ, Zheng A, Palettas M, Azali L, Bhat SA, Byrd JC, Grever MR, Rogers KA, Woyach JA, Kittai AS

Acalabrutinib is a next-generation, more selective, covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor (BTKi), designed to have less toxicity, including bleeding, than the first-generation covalent BTKi ibrutinib. We performed a retrospective medical record review of 289 patients with B-cell malignancies treated with acalabrutinib to evaluate and describe bleeding events. Median acalabrutinib exposure was 40.8 months (range 0-81.6) with 83% of patients experiencing at least one bleeding event. Of these patients, 59%, 35%, and 6% had a clinically non-relevant minor, clinically relevant minor, or major bleed as their first, most severe event per ISTH criteria, respectively. For all bleed events, 24% were clinically relevant minor/major and 2.5% were CTCAE grade ≥3. Age >65, prior bleed history, and longer time on acalabrutinib therapy were found to be independent risk factors for clinically relevant minor/major bleeds. Additionally, 1263 procedures were identified, and the incidence of clinically non-relevant and clinically relevant minor/major bleeds related to procedures was 0.95% and 1.3%, respectively. In conclusion, with a long median exposure time, most bleeds were clinically non-relevant per ISTH criteria and CTCAE grade <3 for patients with B-cell malignancies treated with acalabrutinib.