Will CLL Watch and Wait Be Redefined for Patients?

Will CLL Watch and Wait Be Redefined for Patients?

Will CLL Watch and Wait Be Redefined for Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Watch as CLL specialist, Dr. Nadia Khan from Fox Chase Cancer Center explains the current watch and wait strategy for CLL patients and ongoing studies exploring earlier interventions for patients with high risk disease features.

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Transcript:

Mary Leer:

Karen asks, with many new therapies available, will watch and wait be redefined for CLL patients? 

Dr. Nadia Khan:

What an excellent question, Karen. Currently, the strategy for CLL patients is to institute therapy when there is likely to be a benefit with the intervention, and there are studies that are ongoing looking at earlier intervention with oral therapy, and once we see the readout for patients with particularly high-risk features. I think it is possible that we’ll have an alternative strategy for those patients. 

Thankfully, our CLL patients live very long lives, and what we’ve come to see over decades of treatment experience with our CLL patients is that early intervention to date has not resulted in longer…longer survival. So at this point, it’s not something that’s recommended, but we may have more information soon.