2023-12-19 14:10:16
“With timed therapy, patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia are finally looking towards their future. Venetoclax is an oral target treatment characterized by very modest toxicity compared to what we had with a chemo-immunotherapy approach. A ‘term’ approach not only allows the patient to suspend therapy but projects him to have an absolutely normal life, not burdened by toxicity, and to have a prolonged period of time free from any treatment. A revolution that has enormously improved the possibility of our patients, young and old, to be able to have plans, to look to their future”. This is what Francesca Romana Mauro, specialist in hematology and professor at the university, told time.news Salute. of Rome La Sapienza, on the occasion of the conference “Chronic lymphocytic leukemia: time to live – The perspective in the young patient and in the elderly patient”, today in Rome, at Palazzo Ferrajoli, with representatives of Italian hematology and patients.
The chemo-immunotherapy approach “that we had in the past – underlines Mauro – led the patient to have important side effects, especially in terms of infections which we saw more frequently in the elderly patient, who was more fragile from an immune point of view. However, with the drug Venetoclax the impact of infections is more modest. Furthermore, patients – elderly or young, it makes no difference – could suffer from cytopenia (anemia, reduction of platelets, neutropenia) as a result of chemo-immunotherapy and therefore needed transfusion support. All these side effects are greatly reduced with a more specific therapeutic approach, aimed at the mechanisms that cause the proliferation of leukemic cells and their more prolonged survival”.
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