Dr. Danilov on the Role of Chemoimmunotherapy in CLL

Alexey V. Danilov, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cancer Biology Graduate Program, Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, discusses the role of chemoimmunotherapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

The field of CLL has witnessed a diminishing role for chemoimmunotherapy in the treatment of patients with CLL because of the introduction of multiple novel therapies to the paradigm, Danilov says. 

Chemoimmunotherapy is not as commonly administered in specialized treatment centers as it is in community centers. As such, it’s critical that patients in the community setting are tested for high-risk disease features such as 17p or 11q deletions and unmutated IGHV; these patients may not be appropriate for chemoimmunotherapy, explains Danilov. .

Next-generation sequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization testing should be used to determine whether a patient harbors an IGHV mutation and whether chemoimmunotherapy should be considered, concludes Danilov.