William Wierda, MD, PhD from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX discusses the safety of idelalisib for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr Wierda outlines the risk of infection for previously untreated patients and discusses the higher incidences of deaths observed in patients treated with idelalisib in randomized trials comparing idelalisib with chlorambucil. According to Dr Wierda, idelalisib is probably not an appropriate first-line treatment but has a place in salvage therapy. In terms of infections, he discusses the need to give prophylaxis for herpes virus and pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) as well as the need for monitoring for cytomegalovirus (CMV).
Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.