Achieving complete remission in CLL patients treated with ibrutinib: clinical significance and predictive factors

In this Letter to Blood, Strati and colleagues report that depth of response is associated with durability of benefit in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treated with ibrutinib. Patients who achieve a complete remission have longer durations of response than those with partial response. The authors provide preliminary evidence associating tumor-associated macrophages with depth of treatment response.