Phase II trial of subcutaneous anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab (Campath-1H) as first-line treatment for patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL)

Low-dose subcutaneous alemtuzumab in refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL): results of a prospective, single-arm multicentre study

“…It has been shown that the subcutaneous administration of alemtuzumab for a longer period is highly effective as first-line treatment, giving rise to fewer and less severe systemic symptoms and thus leading to greater patient compliance. 6,9 Favourable results have also been obtained using much lower cumulative and per dose amounts of the drug, particularly in the setting of maintenance/consolidation therapy. 10 The aim of this article is to update our earlier findings in a smaller cohort of patients 9 concerning the safety and efficacy of subcutaneous low-dose alemtuzumab treatment in patients with refractory CLL.…”

“…4 It been found to be effective in CLL when used alone as both front-line and salvage therapy, 5 and also seems to be effective in patients whose leukaemic cells carry the 17p deletion. 6,7 However, although the first published studies of alemtuzumab in the treatment of CLL go back more than 10 years, 8 some areas of uncertainty still remain. These mainly concern the fear of adverse events related to the profound lymphopenia and associated infections induced by the drug when the classic and consolidated intravenous schedule of 30 mg three times a week for 12 weeks is used because, although highly effective, it may lead to infusionrelated side effects and potentially life-threatening infections.…”

“…It is interesting to note that the best bone marrow response was achieved only after 18 weeks of treatment, but was documented in more than 50% of patients. 6 The theoretical total amount of drug delivered on the basis of this protocol is 1620 mg, and the median cumulative dose of alemtuzumab actually administered was 1213 mg. 6 The efficacy of the subcutaneous route of administration was confirmed in fludarabine-refractory CLL patients by a German CLL Study Group trial designed to assess the relationship between genetic abnormalities and the response to alemtuzumab. The median alemtuzumab dose was 722 mg (range 3-2203 mg), and the OR rate was 36%, median progressionfree survival was 9.7 months, and median OS was 13.1 months.…”

Management of infections in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with alemtuzumab

“…The infectious events in two studies of first-line alemtuzumab therapy are summarized in Table 1 [24,33].…”

A case report of successful alemtuzumab treatment of a B-CLL patient suffering from renal failure

“…SC injection of alemtuzumab has been shown to reduce the incidence of AEs related to intravenous administration in a phase II trial in previously untreated symptomatic patients with B-CLL [1,2] and similar tolerability findings have also been noted in other studies that have assessed SC administration of alemtuzumab in both relapsed-refractory and untreated CLL patients [3][4][5]. However, this case provides the first report of the safety and efficacy of alemtuzumab in a patient with renal insufficiency.…”