Ruxolitinib has emerged as a superior treatment for patients battling steroid-refractory or dependent chronic graft-versus-host disease, offering significantly extended failure-free survival compared to standard therapies over a three-year period.
Comprehensive Trial Structure
In the REACH3 trial (NCT03112603), 329 participants were randomly assigned to receive either ruxolitinib at a dose of 10 mg twice daily or the best available therapy for the first 24 weeks. Following this phase, patients either continued their assigned treatment, entered a long-term survival follow-up, or switched from best available therapy to ruxolitinib, allowing for an extensive evaluation of long-term efficacy and safety.
Outstanding Clinical Outcomes
The study found that patients treated with ruxolitinib achieved a median failure-free survival of 38.4 months, starkly higher than the 5.7 months observed in those receiving the best available therapy, with a hazard ratio of 0.36. Furthermore, the median duration of response was not reached for the ruxolitinib group, compared to 6.4 months for the control group.
• Ruxolitinib patients had a 56.5% probability of failure-free survival at 36 months versus 18.2% for BAT.
• Response maintenance stood at 59.6% with ruxolitinib compared to 26.7% with BAT.
• Among the 70 patients who switched to ruxolitinib, the overall response rate at week 24 was 50.0%, and the best overall response during the crossover period reached 81.4%.
Additionally, the median overall survival was not reached, and incidences of nonrelapse mortality and malignancy relapse or recurrence remained low. The safety profile of ruxolitinib remained manageable over the three-year follow-up, with no new safety concerns identified.
These findings position ruxolitinib as a highly effective long-term treatment option for chronic GVHD, offering patients sustained responses and improved survival outcomes. Healthcare providers might consider incorporating ruxolitinib into treatment protocols to enhance patient prognosis and quality of life.
This article has been prepared with the assistance of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more details, please refer to our Terms and Conditions. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author.
