BRUIN MCL-321: phase III study of pirtobrutinib versus investigator choice of BTK inhibitor in BTK inhibitor naive mantle cell lymphoma

Treatment with covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKi) represents an important advance in the management of relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma, but these treatments are not curative and many patients ultimately relapse. Pirtobrutinib, a highly selective, noncovalent (reversible) BTKi, inhibits both wild type and C481-mutant BTK with equal low nM potency, and has favorable oral pharmacology that enables continuous BTK inhibition throughout the dosing interval regardless of intrinsic rate of BTK turnover. Pirtobrutinib is well tolerated and has demonstrated promising efficacy in patients with poor prognosis B-cell malignancies following prior therapy, including covalent BTKi. This phase III, head-to-head, randomized study (NCT04662255) will evaluate whether pirtobrutinib is superior to investigator's choice of covalent BTKi in patients with previously treated, BTKi-naive mantle cell lymphoma.