# Alemtuzumab compared with chlorambucil as first-line therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-hillmen-j-clin-oncol/  
OnCo record `paper-hillmen-j-clin-oncol` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Paper cited by one target page, indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 17984186 and published in Journal of Clinical Oncology; the citing page links this DOI, which is how the record was matched.

## Summary

Purpose: We conducted a randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravenous alemtuzumab compared with chlorambucil in first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Patients and methods: Patients received alemtuzumab (30 mg three times per week, for up to 12 weeks) or chlorambucil (40 mg/m(2) every 28 days, for up to 12 months). The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall response rate (ORR), complete response (CR), time to alternative therapy, safety, and overall survival.

Results: We randomly assigned 297 patients, 149 to alemtuzumab and 148 to chlorambucil. Alemtuzumab had superior PFS, with a 42% reduction in risk of progression or death (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.58; P =.0001), and a median time to alternative treatment of 23.3 versus 14.7 months for chlorambucil (HR = 0.54; P =.0001). The ORR was 83% with alemtuzumab (24% CR) versus 55% with chlorambucil (2% CR); differences in ORR and CR were highly statistically significant (P <.0001). Elimination of minimal residual disease occurred in 11 of 36 complete responders to alemtuzumab versus none to chlorambucil. Adverse events profiles were similar, except for more infusion-related and cytomegalovirus (CMV) events with alemtuzumab and more nausea and vomiting with chlorambucil. CMV events had no apparent impact on efficacy.

Conclusion: As first-line treatment for patients with CLL, alemtuzumab demonstrated significantly improved PFS, time to alternative treatment, ORR and CR, and minimal residual disease-negative remissions compared with chlorambucil, with predictable and manageable toxicity.

Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 17984186 (DOI 10.1200/jco.2007.12.9098). Matched by DOI alone: one target page cites this DOI among its external links (the pages are listed under Related), and this page was written so that the citation resolves inside OnCo. No figure has been checked by an editor.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Tags: europepmc-ingest
- Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology
- Year: 2007
- DOI: 10.1200/jco.2007.12.9098
- Authors: Hillmen P, Skotnicki AB, Robak T, et al.
- What it means: One target page on OnCo cites this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing page listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
- Caveats: Matched to the citing OnCo records by DOI alone; the summary reproduces the Europe PMC abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.

## Sources

- J Clin Oncol 2007: https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2007.12.9098
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17984186/
- Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/17984186

## Connected records

- targets: [CD52](https://onco.cc/targets/cd52/)
- journals: [Journal of Clinical Oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/jco/)

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