The Management of CLL in Elderly Patients

Alessandra Ferrajoli, MD, associate professor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in elderly patients.

Clinical Pearls:

• Clinical trials that have shown that the management of elderly patients with CLL needs to be different from the fit and young population
• Although there is no standard of care for elderly patients with CLL, physicians are starting to move away from chemoimmunotherapy and moving towards monoclonal antibody-based treatment
• In addition to considering the fitness and type of disease of elderly patients, physicians must consider transportation difficulties, limited financial budgets and ease of treatment