Treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is not considered to be curative. This means that after your initial round of CLL treatment through chemotherapy, there may be no signs of leukemia for years, but the cancer will probably return at some point. Sometimes, the first sign is when a patient’s white blood cell count becomes elevated again, even though they feel fine. Sometimes, lymph nodes begin to swell again.
Doctors don’t usually order routine CAT scans for patients who have had initial therapy. So it’s often the patients that bring their CLL recurrence to the attention of their doctor. But the recurrence doesn’t mean that patients need to get another round of therapy right away. Just like with early stage CLL, you can do well with simple monitoring for several months–sometimes even years in case resuming CLL treatment is necessary.
Younger patients or those with more aggressive CLL may be considered for bone marrow transplants. But new targeted drugs, immunotherapies and other treatment combinations are making transplants less common for CLL.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
Dr. Matthew Davids is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Associate Director of the Dana-Farber CLL Center. Read More
Treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is not considered to be curative. This means that after your initial round of CLL treatment through chemotherapy, there may be no signs of leukemia for years, but the cancer will probably return at some point. Sometimes, the first sign is when a patient’s white blood cell count becomes elevated again, even though they feel fine. Sometimes, lymph nodes begin to swell again.
Doctors don’t usually order routine CAT scans for patients who have had initial therapy. So it’s often the patients that bring their CLL recurrence to the attention of their doctor. But the recurrence doesn’t mean that patients need to get another round of therapy right away. Just like with early stage CLL, you can do well with simple monitoring for several months–sometimes even years in case resuming CLL treatment is necessary.
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Younger patients or those with more aggressive CLL may be considered for bone marrow transplants. But new targeted drugs, immunotherapies and other treatment combinations are making transplants less common for CLL.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
Dr. Matthew Davids is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Associate Director of the Dana-Farber CLL Center. Read More
