VIDEO: Collaboration in CLL focuses on patient comorbidities

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I think collaborative care is really, really important in CLL because a lot of the patients who are diagnosed with CLL are in their 70s and 80s. They have other medical comorbidities and balancing toxicities that come with some of our targeted therapies. Having an understanding of what other medical problems they're dealing with at the same time as their CLL is really, really important, so I work really closely with the patient's cardiologist, and if there is a cardio-oncology program, I think it's wonderful to collaborate with because we know these agents often can increase risk of hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias. We know that, for example, with venetoclax (Venclexta; AbbVie, Genentech) and obinutuzumab [Gazyva, Genentech], often these patients get a lot of hydration so volume status is really important. So, optimizing a patient's other medical comorbidities is really, really important. And I work very closely with primary care doctors as well to make sure these patients are keeping up to date on cancer screenings like skin cancer screening, which is an increased risk with patients with CLL, and ensuring that they're keeping up to date with their immunizations as well because infection risk is a major problem, too. So, yeah, I think collaborative care is a really critical part of CLL management.