Door 2 - What is Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)?

[AlexaHU]

Do you know what what Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is and the symptoms to look out for?

CLL Support Association (CLLSA) tells us more as we open door two of the HealthUnlocked Advent Calendar.

blog.healthunlocked.com/201...

[lupus-support1]

It was pointed out to me that when looking for lupus at HU, (healthunlocked.com/lupus) CLL is included.

Why?

Lupus UK & my organisation: LUpus Patients Understanding & Support (LUPUS) are about SLE.

Ros

[AussieNeil in reply to lupus-support1]

Simply that both diseases are due to out of control B-lymphocytes and the HU tagging system recognised the common factor. CLL is caused by clonal/cancerous B-lymphocytes (and auto-immune complications affect some of us with CLL). SLE is associated with polyclonal B-cell hyperreactivity. That's why drugs used to manage CLL by reducing the number of B-lymphocytes are also used to manage lupus, e.g. Rituximab, steroids, chlorambucil, etc.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Your community can take heart in the knowledge that after little activity in the development of new drugs that specifically target B-lymphocytes, there's currently a very active development of non-chemo drugs that inhibit B-lymphocyte activity, with several recently being given FDA approval (Ibrutininb/Imbruvica, Venclexta/Venetoclax) and more anticipated, such as Acalabrutinib, which is a second generation Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor that is more selective than Ibrutinib and hence less likely to cause unacceptable side effects. Ibrutinib and Acalabrutinib are maintenance drugs for CLL - patients are on them indefinitely. That gives lupus patients critical information from long term tracking of CLL patients in trials on likely side effects. Once FDA approval has been obtained for CLL or other B-lymphocyte blood cancers, I expect off label use will be developed with reduced dosage protocols for auto-immune conditions like Lupus and Rheumatic Arthritis.

Neil

[lupus-support1 in reply to AussieNeil]

Thank you Neil and I am aware of the connection and every so often studies regarding patients with SLE and cancer are published. In addition, many drugs used in the treatment of cancer are used in lower doses for autoimmune diseases.

However, I disagree that CLL should be placed with SLE, an autoimmune disease which is genetically related to MS, RA and type 1 diabetes.

Patients with autoimmune conditions invariably have more than one.

Therefore, SLE ought to be among autoimmune conditions.

While you and I may have a better understanding of the biochemistry, most do not. What they see is SLE, CLL and cancer.

I am not a medical doctor. I am not a part of HU. I just think that putting CLL with lupus, may confuse and concern people.

Why not have an autoimmune section?

Thanks again.

With good wishes,

Ros