Venetoclax in combination with chemotherapy as treatment for pediatric
advanced hematologic malignancies: A narrow therapeutic window of
promise and peril
Abstract
Background: V enetoclax is frequently used as salvage
treatment in pediatric, adolescent, and young adult (AYA) patients with
advanced hematologic malignancies. However, more robust data are needed
from real-world studies to guide the safe and appropriate use of
venetoclax in this population. Procedure: We retrospectively
reviewed the medical records of all patients diagnosed with hematologic
malignancies less than 30 years of age treated with venetoclax outside
of clinical trials at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Benioff Children’s Hospitals from 2016 to 2022. Results: We
identified 13 patients (AML , n= 8, B-ALL, n= 3, MDS,
n= 2) aged 4 months to 27 years. A median of 3 prior lines of
therapy were given (range 0 to 5). All patients received venetoclax in
combination with either a hypomethylating agent or conventional
chemotherapy. Three (23%) patients achieved a complete remission (CR);
2 (15%) achieved a partial remission (PR); 3 (23%) had stable disease
(SD), and 5 (42%) had progressive disease. Median survival and time to
progression from venetoclax initiation was 9 months (range 2.5 to 52
months), and 3 months (range 2 weeks to 7.5 months), respectively. Five
patients (38%) developed life-threatening infections while receiving
venetoclax, including bacteremia due to atypical organisms, invasive
pulmonary infections with Aspergillus, cytomegalovirus (CMV) viremia,
skin infections, encephalitis with bacterial brain abscesses.
Conclusions: Venetoclax in combination with hypomethylating
agents or cytotoxic chemotherapy was effective in a subset of
pediatric/AYA patients with advanced hematologic malignancies, but was
frequently associated with severe atypical infections, particularly in
combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy.