Patients with CTCL subtypes mycosis fungoides and S¨¦zary syndrome who received ?2 prior systemic therapy regimens received panobinostat (20 mg) three times every week. The primary objective was overall response rate (ORR) as determined by a combined evaluation of skin disease and involvement of lymph node and viscera. Disease progression was defined as an unconfirmed, ?25 % increase in modified Severity Weighted Assessment Tool (mSWAT) compared with nadir.
Seventy-nine bexarotene-exposed and 60 bexarotene-na?ve patients were enrolled. Reductions in baseline mSWAT scores were observed in 103 patients (74.1 % ). The ORR was 17.3 % in all patients in the primary analysis (15.2 % and 20.0 % in the bexarotene-exposed and -na?ve groups, respectively). The median progression-free survival was 4.2 and 3.7 months in the bexarotene-exposed and -na?ve groups, respectively. The median duration of response was 5.6 months in the bexarotene-exposed patients and was not reached at data cutoff in the bexarotene-na?ve patients. Additional responses were observed when less-stringent progression criteria were used. The most common adverse events were thrombocytopenia, diarrhoea, fatigue and nausea. Thrombocytopenia and neutropenia were the only grade 3/4 adverse events in >5 % of patients and were manageable.
Despite a very conservative definition of disease progression, panobinostat demonstrated activity with a manageable safety profile in bexarotene-exposed and -na?ve CTCL patients. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: .