Estimated cardiac deaths associated with treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia with ibrutinib versus…

StudyFuture oncology (London, England)· Jul 2026

Estimated cardiac deaths associated with treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia with ibrutinib versus zanubrutinib in the United States.

Jennifer R Brown, Talha Munir, Andrew H Lipsky … Constantine S Tam

HematologyStudyTreatmentQ1IF 2.6

Switching to zanubrutinib could avoid 81 cardiac deaths in 2L+ chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Estimated cardiac deaths associated with treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia with ibrutinib versus zanubrutinib in the United States.

Jennifer R Brown … Constantine S Tam

Future oncology (London, England) · Jul 2026 · Q1 in General Medicine

Background

In the absence of real-world comparative studies of cardiac death risk, this study estimates the potential reduction in cardiac mortality associated with treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) patients with zanubrutinib instead of ibrutinib in first-line (1L) or second-line or later (2L+) in the United States (United States).

Methods

Number needed to treat (NNT) for incremental cardiac death with ibrutinib versus zanubrutinib was applied to real-world ibrutinib utilization from Symphony over 5 years (2020-2024).

n = 54 patients

81

Results

81

cardiac deaths

potential reduction in heart-related deaths for patients switching to zanubrutinib

n = 54 patients

More results

In 2L+ chronic lymphocytic leukemia, NNT for incremental cardiac death was 54 patients.

The exploratory 1L chronic lymphocytic leukemia NNT per cardiac death was 46, corresponding to 140 potentially avoidable deaths if patients were treated with zanubrutinib.

More results

Over a 10+ year period, the number of potentially avoidable deaths increased to 318 (2L+) and 489 (1L).

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Conclusion

The NNT model suggests substantial cardiac death reductions if zanubrutinib were utilized instead of ibrutinib for chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment in United States practice.

Estimated cardiac deaths associated with treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia with ibrutinib versus zanubrutinib in the United States.

Estimated cardiac deaths associated with treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia with ibrutinib versus zanubrutinib in the United States.

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