The management of relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a complex and difficult issue. We interviewed William Wierda, MD, PhD, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, on the subject at the 23rd Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Stockholm, Sweden. He discusses a presentation that he gave at the congress, where he used a case study of a relapsed patient 4 years post-remission with FCR chemotherapy. In this presentation, he contrasted past remission treatment options like classical chemoimmunotherapy and lenalidomide-based therapies with more modern treatments like BTK and BCL2 inhibitors. While BTK inhibitors often have to be used for extended periods of time, BCL2 inhibitors offer more opportunity for treatment-free remission, as shown by the MURANO trial (NCT02005471).
Current treatment options for relapsed CLL
