Dr. Hill Discusses the Treatment Landscape of CLL

Brian T. Hill, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Hematology and Oncology, Cleveland Clinic, discusses the treatment landscape of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Hill says that the treatment of CLL has drastically changed over the past 5 years. In contrast to the old way of treatment, which was chemotherapy or chemoimmunotherapy, there are many highly-active and effective agents for the treatment of CLL now. This can pose a challenge for general oncologists who need to select from these treatments and sequence them, Hill says.

Chemoimmunotherapy is still active and appropriate for some patients with CLL, but the Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors remain the go-to agents for relapsed disease and in the frontline for patients with 17p deletion or other molecular aberrations, Hill says. These patients who have molecular aberrations have historically done worse with chemotherapy, he adds.