The introduction of novel agents has really revolutionized the care of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia to the point where chemotherapy is rarely used, said Lindsey Roeker, MD, clinical fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

How has the introduction of novel agents changed treatment paradigms in CLL?

CLL is a radically different disease than it was in the era of chemotherapy. We pretty much don’t use chemotherapy at this point in our practice. It really has become a disease that’s managed with novel agents, and we’re figuring out how to most effectively sequence novel agents to make sure that’s a durable strategy. But, CLL has been revolutionized by those novel agents.

Have you seen outcomes and patient experiences change as a result of these novel agents?

As a trainee who has trained really in the era of novel agents, my exposure to chemotherapy for CLL is rather limited, to be honest. So, the few patients that we have treated with chemo just have a different side effect profile and a much higher toxicity burden. For most patients these novel agents are really pretty well tolerated, and we’re able to manage side effects and really have people have durable time on these novel agents.