Challenges associated with long-term therapies in CLL

Michael Hallek, MD from the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, discusses associated with long-term therapies in chronica lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). At the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2015 Annual Meeting, held in Orlando, FL, data on several new therapies was presented, which indicates a new era for CLL, where patients will be treated for longer periods of time, potentially lasting several years. This raises financial and political issues that are being discussed in the CLL community, with clinicians and advocates pushing for the development of finite therapies that can achieve complete remission or minimum residual disease (MRD) negativity.