Sportoletti (UniPg), ‘increasingly effective chronic lymphocytic leukemia therapies’

2023-12-19 17:36:42

“For chronic lymphocytic leukemia we have a range of increasingly effective drugs. In recent years there has been a real revolution that has transformed the treatment of this disease: we have moved from an aggressive therapy to a chemo-free target. The current drugs they are small molecules, inhibitors of the pathways that regulate the survival and proliferation of diseased cells. Why do we use these drugs? Simple, because patients, due to the effect of CLL, have problems of anemia, thrombocytopenia, enlarged lymphomas. These drugs are to turn the clock back to when the disease was not aggressive. A very important detail for the quality of life.” Thus at time.news Salute the haematologist Paolo Sportoletti, Hematology Section Department of Medicine and Surgery University of Perugia, on the occasion of the conference ‘Chronic lymphocytic leukemia: time to live – The perspective in the young patient and in the elderly patient’, promoted today in Rome ( Palazzo Ferrajoli) with representatives of Italian hematology and patients.

“Another very important aspect – he adds – is that these therapies are increasingly ‘term’: the patient starts them, but then interrupts them, a huge benefit for those living with LLC because they do not have to constantly take drugs, but have periods free from the disease, a ‘holiday’ from therapy, so that he can lead his life in the most dynamic way possible.” Furthermore, “they are drugs with a low toxicity profile. And given that patients with CLL are often elderly with other concomitant diseases, being able to count on drugs that target CLL without worsening the general conditions of these patients is a big step forward. The new drugs are succeeding: venetoclax, for example, is able to give excellent responses with a very low toxicity profile. And this has a strong impact – highlights the specialist – above all it extends the possibility of therapy to a very wide audience of patients, especially the elderly”.