How do we treat the older/unfit CLL patient and which treatment do we chose?

These questions are addressed in this symposium with a review of the data.

An overview is given of chemotherapy treatments, eg, fludarabine, bendamustine, in older/unfit patients.

Dr Goede refers to the phase III data comparing bendamustine with chlorambucil with benefits observed on PFS with bendamustine.

Addressing whether chemoimmunotherapy, eg, chlorambucil-based and bendamustine-based chemoimmunotherapy, can be used in older/unfit patients, data are presented suggesting the promise observed to date. Dr Goede goes on to outline the on-going MaBLe study comparing bendamustine plus rituximab with chlorambucil plus rituximab, with preliminary results showing a higher complete response after six treatment cycles with the bendamustine vs. chlorambucil combination, with similar adverse events.

In terms of new drugs, Dr Goede reviews promising data so far for lenalidomide, TKIs, eg, ibrutinib, and the novel CD20 antibodies in older/unfit patients.  So, how should clinicians use the various treatments in the older/unfit patient?  Dr Goede shares his views on this important question.

Content taken from a Mundipharma sponsored satellite symposium at iwCLL 2013 as part of the official programme.