Coping With Relapse In CLL Care
- It’s not uncommon for patients to worry about relapse after chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatment, but modern treatments offer long remissions — often lasting many years — and multiple effective options if the disease returns.
- “The expectation is that someone can achieve remission for many, many years and sometimes decades… but there is a risk of relapse,” says Dr. Kieron Dunleavy at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, who emphasizes that relapse does not mean patients are out of options.
- With numerous biological pathways to target and a robust pipeline of new drugs and clinical trials, CLL today functions more like a chronic, highly manageable illness, with evolving treatments that continue to expand what’s possible for patients.
Dr. Kieron Dunleavy, a hematologist-oncologist with MedStar Georgetown University Hospital at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C., says he addresses this directly with patients from the very beginning and that the outlook, even in the case of relapse, is generally reassuring.
Read More“We have options down the road,” he says. “We can move in a very different direction with the way that we’re approaching the disease,” Dr. Dunleavy adds.
RELATED: ‘Game Changing’ New Treatment Gives Hope to Relapsed CLL Leukemia Patients
Why CLL Is Considered Especially Treatable
Part of what makes relapse less daunting in CLL, compared with some other cancers, is the sheer number of ways the disease can be attacked.
“One of the good things about CLL and SLL is that it’s a disease that is very susceptible to a wide variety of targeting,” Dr. Dunleavy explains. “There are various different pathways that if you target them, you can really have a very good effect on the disease.”
A Pipeline of New Options
Beyond the therapies already approved and in routine use, Dr. Dunleavy points to an active pipeline of clinical trials studying new drugs and new combinations for patients whose CLL has relapsed.
“There are many, many clinical trials going on,” he says, noting that some trials are testing new uses for drugs already used in CLL, while others are testing entirely new agents. He expects that some of these will become available specifically for patients in the relapse setting in the coming years.
RELATED: An Oral Medicine for People With Relapsed CLL: Idelalisib
Expert Resources for CLL Patients
- CLL Treatment: The Side Effects to Expect & Why Reporting All New Symptoms is Crucial
- Do I Need A Stem Cell Transplant For CLL?
- How Do Doctors Determine When to Treat Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)?
- If Other Treatments Aren’t Working — Stem Cell Transplant May Be A Good Option In CLL
- Dr. Georgios Pongas’ Guide to CLL Care & Treatment Advances
CLL: A Chronic, Manageable Illness
Dr. Dunleavy frames the modern trajectory of CLL treatment — including the possibility of relapse — as part of a broader transformation in how the disease is understood and managed.
“I think we have really converted CLL into a chronic illness,” he says. “Yes, it’s annoying for people to have to come to the clinic a few times a year, but compared to what this disease was 15 or 20 years ago, it’s a completely different place now.”
For patients navigating a CLL diagnosis, that long view can offer added reassurance. Even if the disease returns after a period of remission, oncologists today have a growing and increasingly sophisticated toolkit of treatments with more options continuing to emerge from ongoing clinical research.
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