The Effect of Initial Therapy Choice in Determining Long Term Survival in Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).

Abstract

Abstract Successive advances in CLL therapy have led to significant gains in response quality and remission duration but have not yet shown improved survival. An inherent limitation of randomised trials is the long followup required to demonstrate survival benefit in indolent diseases. In order to examine the effect of initial therapy on survival, we retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of patients treated on frontline protocols at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Between 10/86 to 01/04, 616 patients received initial therapy with one of three fludarabine-based chemotherapy regimens. Patients in Cohort 1 (F; n=190) received fludarabine±prednisone, Cohort 2 (FC/M; n=140) fludarab..