Dr. Susan O’Brien Shares ‘Encouraging’ SEQUOIA Trial Data in CLL

Susan M. O’Brien, MD, of UCI Health, discussed the SEQUOIA trial of zanubrutinib as a frontline covalent Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor in patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) presented at the European Hematology Association 2025 Congress. Dr. O’Brien described the safety and efficacy of zanubrutinib, the benefits of combining the drug with venetoclax and obinutuzumab, and the future of CLL treatment.

“As we move forward, the future of frontline therapy is clearly going to combination regimens,” she said. “The bottom line is these combinations produce very high rates of MRD [measurable residual disease] undetectability, which then potentially allows for finite duration of therapy…one of the open questions on the future of moving forward in combinations is, ‘Are two drugs better than three drugs?’”