Dr. Wierda on Frontline Therapy for Older CLL Patients Compared to Younger

William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, medical director of the Leukemia Center at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discusses the different standard frontline therapies for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Wierda says chemotherapy is the standard of care for frontline treatment except for patients who are untreated and harbor the 17p deletion mutation. These patients would receive ibrutinib as frontline therapy, Wierda says.

For patients who are young and fit, fludarabine/cyclophosphamide/rituximab (FCR) is favored over bendamustine/rituximab (BR), Wierda says.

For patients over 65 or those who are frail or have comorbidities, Wierda suggests using chlorambucil plus obinituzumab is as frontline therapy. Wierda says chlorambucil plus ofatumumab is another option since it is superior in terms of progression-free survival, but chlorambucil plus obinituzumab is superior in overall survival.

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