cancer drug acalabrutinib, a BTK protein inhibitor that is approved to treat several blood cancers, was associated with reduced COVID-19 respiratory distress and a reduction in the overactive immune response in most of the treated patients.
This prospective off-label clinical study included 19 patients with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis that required hospitalization, as well as with low blood-oxygen levels and evidence of inflammation. Of these patients, 11 had been receiving supplemental oxygen for a median of two days, and eight others had been on ventilators for a median of 1.5 (range 1-22) days.
Within one to three days after they began receiving acalabrutinib, the majority of patients in the supplemental oxygen group experienced a substantial drop in inflammation, and their breathing improved. Eight of these 11 patients were able to come off supplemental oxygen and were discharged from the hospital. Although the benefit of acalabrutinib was less dramatic in patients on ventilators, four of the eight patients were able to come off the ventilator, two of whom were eventually discharged. The authors note that the ventilator patient group was extremely clinically diverse and included patients who had been on a ventilator for prolonged periods of time and had major organ dysfunction. Two of the patients in this group died.
