The drive to find treatment options for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with lower toxicities means clinicians are relying less and less on chemotherapy. Here, William Wierda, MD, PhD, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, discusses this trend at the 23rd Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Stockholm, Sweden. He explains that patients with mutations in the Ig heavy chain gene are the only group who routinely receive FCR chemotherapy at this point, and discusses the small molecule inhibitor and anti-CD20 antibody combination therapies that have helped to make chemotherapy redundant. Dr Wierda also highlights the data that need to be collected in order to fully understand how well these chemotherapy-free treatments are working.
Moving away from chemotherapy in CLL
