Welcome.

CLL Topics Updates is dedicated to the education and empowerment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients and their caregivers. If you want to learn more about CLL, its therapy options, prognostics, potential complications, interesting clinical trials and cutting-edge research, we can help. We are not affiliated with any company or institution in the healthcare business. Please take a few minutes to learn more about us and our mission.

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Chaya Venkat
President, CLL Topics

Newly diagnosed?

CLL can be a very confusing disease. Newly diagnosed patients can use a little extra help understanding the jargon and making sense of their choices. This page is just for you. It has information we think you can use right away.

Recent Articles

Date Article
03/14/2010 Myelodysplastic syndrome

A small percentage of CLL patients develop myelodysplastic syndrome (myeloid cancer precursor) and some of these guys go on to develop full fledged myeloid cancer. In this article we discuss risk factors and chemotherapy drugs that may increase your chances of myelodysplasia.
03/08/2010 FCR “Lite”

Rituxan seems to need help from old fashioned chemo to make it work better.  But can we optimize, reduce the chemo part of  FCR  as much as possible? Can FCR “Lite” deliver sufficient ‘oomph’ to kill CLL cells, yet be gentle on your body?  Here is the latest scoop on this concept.
02/19/2010 Can FCR Combo Be Made To Work Better?

Over the last few years FCR has become the standard therapy for treating CLL patients.  The race is on to find ways of improving the “gold standard”.  In this article we review several approaches that have been tried in recent clinical trials.
02/14/2010 Neutropenia

Neutropenia is a frequent complication for CLL patients, especially during and after chemotherapy.  Risk of severe and possibly life threatening bacterial infection goes up with severe neutropenia.  There are things you can do to better protect yourself.
02/08/2010 How Much Chemo Is Too Much?

Most of us are familiar with the moral of the “Goldilocks” story. Is there some way of telling when you have had enough chemo? Or should you have all cycles in the protocol, no questions asked?
02/03/2010 Without Your Consent

Many professional research websites and this patient advocacy website  urge patients to volunteer their lives, their bodies, their biological samples for furthering our understanding and potentially helping those that come after us.  But what if there is no informed consent? Are you protected under the law? You might be surprised by the nuances of the answer.
01/31/2010 SLL Versus CLL: How Different Are They?

Dr. Terry Hamblin brings his expertise to this important question in this article.  Please read and join us in the discussion that follows.  Here is your chance to ask questions of a true expert. Did you know early stage SLL may actually be curable?  I must confess, I did not know that.
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