TY - JOUR
T1 - Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
T2 - Treatment options for patients with refractory disease
AU - Motta, Marina
AU - Wierda, William G.
AU - Ferrajoli, Alessandra
PY - 2009/9/1
Y1 - 2009/9/1
N2 - Patients with purine analogue-refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have short survival and limited treatment options. Defining the best salvage strategies for this population is challenging, because limited data are available from clinical trials, and because studies have enrolled mixed populations (patients with recurrent and refractory disease or patients with refractory disease and Richter transformation). Moreover, patients with refractory CLL have a high incidence of unfavorable molecular and clinical features, such as high-risk genomic profiles, unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes, expression of zeta-chain-associated protein kinase 70, and bulky lymphadenopathies. These patients are also severely immunosuppressed because of the underlying disease and the treatments received, and experience a high rate of infectious complications that pose an additional difficulty in selecting treatment. Despite these challenges, in parallel with better characterizations of the biologic features of refractory CLL, the number of available treatment modalities for this population has increased. Several chemoimmunotherapy combinations have been developed, and novel agents with a different mechanism of action are being investigated in clinical trials. Furthermore, allogeneic stem cell transplantation with nonmyeloablative conditioning regimens is a therapeutic strategy that is increasingly offered to patients with refractory CLL.
AB - Patients with purine analogue-refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have short survival and limited treatment options. Defining the best salvage strategies for this population is challenging, because limited data are available from clinical trials, and because studies have enrolled mixed populations (patients with recurrent and refractory disease or patients with refractory disease and Richter transformation). Moreover, patients with refractory CLL have a high incidence of unfavorable molecular and clinical features, such as high-risk genomic profiles, unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes, expression of zeta-chain-associated protein kinase 70, and bulky lymphadenopathies. These patients are also severely immunosuppressed because of the underlying disease and the treatments received, and experience a high rate of infectious complications that pose an additional difficulty in selecting treatment. Despite these challenges, in parallel with better characterizations of the biologic features of refractory CLL, the number of available treatment modalities for this population has increased. Several chemoimmunotherapy combinations have been developed, and novel agents with a different mechanism of action are being investigated in clinical trials. Furthermore, allogeneic stem cell transplantation with nonmyeloablative conditioning regimens is a therapeutic strategy that is increasingly offered to patients with refractory CLL.
KW - Chemoimmunotherapy
KW - Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
KW - Refractory disease
KW - Treatment
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U2 - 10.1002/cncr.24479
DO - 10.1002/cncr.24479
M3 - Review article
C2 - 19536902
AN - SCOPUS:69249096197
SN - 0008-543X
VL - 115
SP - 3830
EP - 3841
JO - Cancer
JF - Cancer
IS - 17
ER -