Age Subgroup Analysis Of Health-Related Quality Of Life Of Blinatumomab Versus Standard-Of-Care Chemotherapy In Patients With Relapsed Or Refractory Philadelphia Chromosome-Negative B-Cell Precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia In A Randomized, Open-Label, Phase 3 Study (Tower)

Background: Despite the availability of new therapies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), older patients have historically poor responses to treatment and poor outcomes versus younger patients, with 5-year survival rates of approximately 20% or less. Blinatumomab is a bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE®) antibody construct that redirects cytotoxic T cells to lyse CD19-positive B cells and is approved for the treatment of relapsed or refractory (r/r) B-cell precursor (BCP) ALL and for minimal residual disease-positive ALL in the US. In the phase 3 TOWER study in patients with r/r Philadelphia chromosome-negative (Ph-) BCP ALL who received blinatumomab compared with standard-of-care (SOC) chemotherapy, overall survival was improved (median, 7.7 vs 4.0 months; P=0.01; Kantarjian H, et al. N Engl J Med. 2017;376:836-847), and posttreatment health-related quality of life (HRQoL) across all EORTC QLQ-C30 scales was better (Topp MS, et al. Blood. 2018;131:2906-2914). TOWER efficacy results did not differ by age group. In this subgroup analysis of TOWER, we assessed the HRQoL of older patients versus younger patients who received blinatumomab or SOC chemotherapy.