Treatment
CLL treatment focuses on controlling the disease and its symptoms rather than on an outright cure. CLL is treated by chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biological therapy, or bone marrow transplantation. Symptoms are sometimes treated surgically (splenectomy removal of enlarged spleen) or by radiation therapy ("de-bulking" swollen lymph nodes).
Initial CLL treatments vary depending on the exact diagnosis and the progression of the disease, and even with the preference and experience of the health care practitioner. There are dozens of agents used for CLL therapy. An initial treatment regimen that contains fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab (known as FCR) has demonstrated higher overall response rates and complete response rates.
Read more about this topic: B-cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
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—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
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—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)