Recently the director of the CLL Research Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Richard Furman sat down with Targeted Oncology to discuss how he treats patients with CLL. Although he emphasized the importance of physician autonomy in the selection of treatments they should be willing to use the latest treatments approved by the FDA. Referring to venetoclax, which received FDA approval earlier this year for CLL patients with del 17p CLL he said,
“If you have a patient with CLL of any type and you believe venetoclax is best for [that patient], you absolutely should use it. There’s nothing about the specificity of the FDA approval that should prevent you. Insurance coverage may be another matter, but clinically speaking, you’re on solid ground.”
Additionally he noted the importance of progression free survival (PFS), which refers to the length of time during and after a treatment in which a disease has not gotten worse. He said,
“Hands down, PFS is the single most important thing to patients. As oncologists who must balance many clinical concerns, it can be easy for us to forget that fact.”
You can continue reading about Dr. Furman’s treatment options in the article.
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