Dana-Farber drug trial could be ‘game changer’
Treatment may protect against lung damage, respiratory distress
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will test blood cancer drugs on coronavirus patients following several reports that the drugs appear to protect against lung damage and respiratory distress.
“It could be a real game changer in this disease because the worst problem associated with COVID is respiratory distress, if we can block that, I think we will take away probably the most harmful aspect of COVID,” said Dr. Steven Treon, principal investigator of the trial and director of the Bing Center for Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia at Dana-Farber.
The oral drugs ibrutinib and zanubrutinib, which are very similar, are often given to patients with Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia, a rare blood cancer, and are typically well tolerated.
Waldenstrom’s has a mutation in the same pathway that coronavirus turns on, so researchers observed cancer patients on the drug who got coronavirus.
The report published in the journal Blood analyzed six cancer patients on ibrutinib who recently contracted coronavirus and all of them had a cough and fever.
Five patients had no shortness of breath, did not need to be hospitalized and steadily improved. The sixth patient had worsening shortness of breath and was taken off the drug before re-starting doses 10 days later and his condition quickly improved.
“This has the ability to block people from coming in with pulmonary distress and also prevent the use of mechanical ventilation,” said Treon.
Treon said in mouse models given lethal doses of the flu, those that were given ibrutinib survived with no lung injury or inflammation.
About 180,000 patients have received ibrutinib for blood cancers, some of them for many years, and it has a well-established safety profile, said Treon. The drug is oral, not intravenous, and can easily be given in the clinic.
“This is an important drug to be able to tide us over until we can get vaccinations,” said Treon.
The ibrutinib trial, involving 46 patients, will be done at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the zanubrutinib trial, with 50 patients, will be carried out at Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital. Other study centers nationwide will also be involved.
Results are expected in late August or September, according to Dana-Farber.