Review highlights major advances, continuing challenges in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
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The availability of highly effective targeted agents has changed the treatment landscape for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but key questions about optimal strategies remain, according to a review published in JAMA.
“In the past 10 years or so, we have made a lot of progress in terms of finding novel therapeutic agents ... that have replaced chemoimmunotherapy, both in the first-line and relapsed settings,” review author Mazyar Shadman, MD, MPH, associate professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and University of Washington, told Healio. “With these changes, we need to keep updated on new guidelines and therapeutics, as well as sequencing and combination therapies.”
The review — the first related to CLL published in JAMA in a decade — highlights how clinicians should assess whether a person diagnosed with CLL requires immediate treatment, as well as how new targeted therapies have improved outcomes and patient quality of life.
Shadman also addresses the importance of continued research to evaluate optimal strategies to sequence or combine new therapies.
“It is very important for our colleagues to refer patients to clinical trials,” Shadman said. “These drugs are getting better from a safety profile and effectiveness standpoint. Combinations are being tested, and hopefully we will achieve the goal of curing CLL.”
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