Lori Leslie, MD, Assistant Professor at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, gives a brief overview of the current treatment landscape for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
CLL is a rare blood cancer resulting in a build-up of lymphocytes in bone marrow, lymph nodes, and blood. The disease is treatable, but relapse is very common.
According to Dr. Leslie, the research landscape for CLL has grown significantly since 2014, particularly in the development of targeted therapies. Common targeted therapies include Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors, BCL-2 inhibitors, and PI3K inhibitors. Support for the use of targeted therapy for CLL was shown in a recent study presented at ASH 2020, which demonstrated that high-risk CLL patients treated with ibrutinib, a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, were more likely to require only one line of treatment compared to those treated with chemoimmunotherapy.
For more information about CLL and other rare cancers, visit checkrare.com/diseases/cancers/
