Tag Archive for: CLL treatment goals

Setting CLL Treatment Goals WITH Your Team

Setting CLL Treatment Goals WITH Your Team from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What are the goals of CLL treatment? CLL expert Dr. Catherine Coombs explains how goals can vary by patient and discusses the benefits of making decisions with your healthcare team.

Dr. Catherine Coombs is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Coombs here.

See More from Thrive CLL

Related Resources:

Anxious From CLL Watch & Wait? How to Cope.

What Helps Determine a CLL Patient’s Treatment Options?

Expert Advice for CLL Self-Advocacy

Transcript:

Katherine:

Appropriate treatment obviously is part of thriving. Before we get into the specifics of CLL treatment approaches, how would you define treatment goals?  

Dr. Coombs:

The first thing to jump into prior to going into treatment goals is asking the question, “Is treatment even needed?” CLL, in contrast to pretty much most other cancers, is not one of the cancers that needs to be treated immediately.  

At least in 2022, there’s no proven benefit to early treatment. That is being questioned now that we have drugs that are much better tolerated. There are some nice clinical trials asking that question again, “Is early treatment beneficial?” At least what we know now is that is not the case. As it turns out, probably up to a third of patients with CLL never need treatment in their lifetime. That means that the disease progresses along usually at a slow pace, and individuals die from something else: any number of other potential causes of death.  

The other two-thirds plus do need treatment at some point in their lifetime. The goals of treatment kind of depend on the patient. There’s not a one-size-fits-all approach in my view. I think it depends on what is most important to the patient.  

I’ll give two drastic examples just to show how goals can be different. CLL often is a disease of older individuals. The average age of diagnosis is usually around 70 or so. But many patients have the disease for a few years, if not longer, prior to needing therapy. So, one example patient could be an 85-year-old individual who has had the disease for a decade and finally needs treatment. The goals of that patient may be to control disease, but he or she may not be worried about going into a deep remission, and may be very, totally willing to be on a drug. And definitely in order to control the disease, alleviate disease-related symptoms, but perhaps not get into a deep remission.  

The other patient, just to take it to another far extreme, I work in an academic medical center; I see some very young patients which is not the norm in CLL, but it does happen.  

Say it’s a 40-year-old patient. His or her goals may be very different. They may not like the idea of being on an oral therapy indefinitely or until progression. So, the goals for that patient may be different. They may say, “Gosh, I’d like to do something a bit more intense to be able to be off of therapy.”  

So, I think in the end there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It generally, for my clinic, comes down to a discussion with the patient talking about what their goals are: is it more important to be off therapy for some period of time and they’re willing to sacrifice a bit more intensive of a schedule? Or are they more appealing to be on a regimen that they’re on indefinitely provided that it still provides disease control and alleviation of the disease-related symptoms.  

Katherine:

What is the patient’s role in setting care goals? 

Dr. Coombs:

I think they should have a huge role; it should be a shared decision between the patient and their cancer doctor. I think at least as of now, there’s not one proven best therapy. We have a number of therapies that work extremely well. But they differ quite a bit with respect to the schedule, the possible side effects profile, and sometimes in the cost, depending upon the patient’s insurance. 

Knowing that there’s not a superior therapy, I think the best approach would be to discuss all of the therapies that are highly effective, and then compare and contrast what those therapies may look like for the patient and then make a shared decision.  

How to Make Confident and Informed CLL Treatment Decisions

How to Make Confident and Informed CLL Treatment Decisions from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How can you engage effectively in your CLL care? Collaborating with your doctor and playing an active role in your care can lead to improved outcomes. This animated video reviews essential steps and important considerations for making informed and confident CLL treatment decisions.

See More from Engage CLL


Related Resources:

What Are the Goals of CLL Treatment?

Transcript:

Elena:

Hi, I’m Elena and this is my husband, Bill.

Elena:

Several years ago, I was diagnosed with CLL, which stands for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. CLL is a blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow. It’s the most common type of adult leukemia.

When I was first diagnosed, I wasn’t treated right away. It was confusing at the time, but my CLL doctor, Dr. Singh, told me that most people with CLL don’t need to be treated immediately.

Here’s Dr. Singh, he can explain it further.

Dr. Singh:

Hi! I’m Dr. Singh, and I’m a hematologist specializing in the care and treatment of people with CLL.

At first, we approached Elena’s CLL with “watch and wait” or active surveillance. Through physical exams, blood work and frequent communication, we monitored how her CLL was progressing over time.

Elena:

I was in watch and wait for about a year—then, I begin to have symptoms that interfered with my daily life. I had drenching night sweats and I felt so exhausted.

Dr. Singh:

Right! An increase in symptoms is often an indicator that it’s time to treat a patient’s CLL. Elena’s fatigue and night sweats are common symptoms. Other symptoms can include enlarged lymph nodes or spleen, fever, unintentional weight loss and frequent infections.

In addition to an increase in symptoms, signs that it might be time to treat can include anemia or low platelet counts.

Elena:

So, once Dr. Singh let me know it was time to treat my CLL, he walked me and Bill through the goals of treatment.

And by that, I mean we discussed balancing my lifestyle with finding an effective treatment for my CLL.

Dr. Singh:

Elena let me know that she’s very social and enjoys riding her bike – we wanted to make sure she could continue doing the activities she loves.

The clinical goals of CLL treatment are to slow, stop or eradicate the cancer. I spoke with Elena and Bill about finding an approach that may get her CLL under control while preserving her quality of life.

Elena also had essential testing, including biomarker testing, which we took into consideration along with her treatment goals. We reviewed each potential approach to make sure we found the best, most personalized treatment option for HER CLL.

We discussed the effectiveness of the treatment option, and the likelihood of a recurrence a. And we reviewed what our next steps would be if the treatment plan needed to be adjusted.

Bill:

And I wanted to make sure Elena was able to continue feeling her best, so I asked about potential side effects for each therapy and how it could impact our lifestyle.

Dr. Singh:

Exactly! We discussed how each treatment option could affect Bill and Elena’s daily life. You and your doctor may also consider:

  • The financial impact of a treatment plan
  • Your age and overall health
  • The stage of your disease at the time of treatment
  • And Biomarker test results

Elena:

In addition to asking questions, Bill took notes during our appointments, since it was often hard for me to absorb everything at once.

Bill:

We also made sure to talk about the appointment on our way home, while the information was fresh on our minds. And we did our part by researching CLL and bringing a list of questions to each appointment.

I found an office visit planner on the Patient Empowerment Network website that helped me organize my health info and questions.

Dr. Singh:

As you can see, Bill and Elena were actively engaged in each care decision. It’s vital that patients feel empowered to speak up. If you can, bring a friend or loved one along to your appointment.

And, if you are able, it’s a good idea to seek a second opinion or a consultation with a CLL specialist to help you feel confident in your care decisions.

Elena:

Dr. Singh made Bill and I feel included in the decision-making process, as if it were a collaboration.

Dr. Singh:

That’s right. This is a partnership. So, what steps can you take to be more engaged in your CLL care?

  • Understand and articulate the goals of your CLL treatment plan.
  • Learn about your options and weigh the pros and cons of each approach.
  • Bring a friend or loved one to your appointments.
  • Ask about essential testing and how it may impact your treatment options.
  • Consider a second opinion or a consult with a CLL specialist.

Bill:

That’s great advice, Dr. Singh. To learn more, visit powerfulpatients.org/CLL to access a library of tools.

Elena:

Thanks for joining us.

What Are the Goals of CLL Treatment?

What Are the Goals of CLL Treatment? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What are some of the goals of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatment? Dr. Matthew Davids outlines some different treatment goals and how the goals are impacted by a patient’s age and other considerations.

Dr. Matthew Davids is Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Lymphoma at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Learn more about Dr. Davids here.

See More from Engage CLL


Related Resources:

 

Who Is on a Patient’s CLL Care Team?

Transcript:

Katherine:

With CLL, what are the goals of treatment?

Dr. Davids:

I like to say to patients, “The goals are to make you live longer and live better.” You want to obviously have treatments that prolong life, but you also want to have treatments that are helping with symptoms, and giving patients more energy, and making them feel better, and protecting them from some of the risks of the disease. And so, I think the goals do vary a bit based on the stage of life that patients are at.

I see a lot of patients in their 70s and 80s, and in those patient’s symptom control, having the disease be in a good remission, allowing them to live their life is a good goal. I sometimes see patients in their 40s and 50s, and some of those patients want to be a bit more aggressive and try to do a strategy that will get them a very long-term remission, and even potentially explore potentially curative strategies.

If I have a higher-risk patient with deletion 17p who’s young and fit, and they’ve already had some of the novel treatments, that’s where we start thinking about clinical trials of some of the cellular therapies like CAR-T cells that people may have heard of where you use the T cells from the patient to try to use that as a therapy to kill off the disease. Or even a bone marrow transplant is something that we have used historically in CLL. We don’t use it as often now, but for younger patients with high-risk disease it’s still a consideration to try to achieve a cure of the CLL even though the risks of that are significant.