Diagnosis from blood work

[Kittykat97]

Hello! My father was diagnosed with CLL after going to the ER for something unrelated. While there he was told he has CLL. I'm curious if this could be diagnosed from just reviewing bloodwork alone? Thank you.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Hi Kittykat and welcome to our community. You'll have plenty of company here with other carers for parents, spouses and siblings, if your father does have CLL.

While your father's tentative diagnosis (a blood test for an unrelated matter) is probably the most common way most of us end up being diagnosed, you are right to question it. As you suspected, there's another blood test required to confirm the suspected diagnosis. It's the immunophenotype test, which identifies from surface markers whether there is a momoclonal population of lymphocytes and that they are specifically those for CLL/SLL, not something similar. Given your father's age and high lymphocyte count, probably with what are called smudge cells present, since CLL is the most common adult leukaemia/lymphoma, it's a reasonably safe guess, but needs to be confirmed. You've found a very supportive community if so.

We have a section for new members to browse here, healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo... but you might want to wait for confirmation. Depending on the results of further testing, your Dad might never need treatment, as CLL is a chronic, slow progressing illness.

Neil