Arnon P. Kater

Arnon P. Kater, MD, PhD is Professor of Hematology at Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, and Chair of the HOVON CLL Working Group, where he leads one of Europe's most productive CLL clinical trial programs. Prof. Kater is internationally recognized as a central investigator in the development of venetoclax-based fixed-duration regimens for CLL, most prominently as a global principal investigator of the landmark MURANO trial (NEJM 2018), a phase III study of 389 patients with relapsed/refractory CLL demonstrating that venetoclax plus rituximab achieved dramatically superior PFS (HR 0.17; 2-year PFS 84.9% vs. 36.3%) and significantly superior OS versus bendamustine plus rituximab, with 62.4% of patients achieving undetectable MRD in peripheral blood. MURANO led to FDA and EMA approval of the venetoclax-rituximab combination and established MRD negativity as a clinically meaningful endpoint in CLL. Prof. Kater also led the GLOW trial (JCO 2022), evaluating ibrutinib plus venetoclax fixed-duration doublet versus chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab in older/unfit CLL patients, demonstrating ibrutinib-venetoclax superiority and establishing the concept of chemotherapy-free, fixed-duration combination therapy in this patient population. His laboratory has contributed importantly to understanding BCL-2 dependency, venetoclax resistance mechanisms, and the role of the anti-apoptotic landscape in CLL. Prof. Kater has authored over 250 publications and is a leading European voice in CLL clinical trial design.