Management of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is a disease that primarily affects the elderly and has a heterogeneous clinical course. The past decade has witnessed extensive progress in its management, owing to the generation of prognostic biological markers that influence therapeutic decisions, as well as the development of novel therapeutic agents that improve the treatment response and survival. This review discusses the value of various prognostic markers in the management of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and the treatment options with conventional chemotherapy and newer chemoimmunotherapy regimens. However, treatment needs to be tailored to individual patients according to the patient's general physical state, ability to tolerate treatment-related toxicity, and presence of comorbidities. To that end, an approach to formulating primary and secondary treatment decisions is also presented. © 2011 Hong Kong College of Radiologists.link_to_subscribed_fulltex