Find information on thousands of medical conditions and prescription drugs.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (or "chronic lymphoid leukemia") CLL, is a cancer in which too many lymphocytes (a type of white blood cells) are produced. more...

Home
Diseases
A
B
C
Angioedema
C syndrome
Cacophobia
Café au lait spot
Calcinosis cutis
Calculi
Campylobacter
Canavan leukodystrophy
Cancer
Candidiasis
Canga's bead symptom
Canine distemper
Carcinoid syndrome
Carcinoma, squamous cell
Carcinophobia
Cardiac arrest
Cardiofaciocutaneous...
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiophobia
Cardiospasm
Carnitine transporter...
Carnitine-acylcarnitine...
Caroli disease
Carotenemia
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpenter syndrome
Cartilage-hair hypoplasia
Castleman's disease
Cat-scratch disease
CATCH 22 syndrome
Causalgia
Cayler syndrome
CCHS
CDG syndrome
CDG syndrome type 1A
Celiac sprue
Cenani Lenz syndactylism
Ceramidase deficiency
Cerebellar ataxia
Cerebellar hypoplasia
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy
Cerebral aneurysm
Cerebral cavernous...
Cerebral gigantism
Cerebral palsy
Cerebral thrombosis
Ceroid lipofuscinois,...
Cervical cancer
Chagas disease
Chalazion
Chancroid
Charcot disease
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
CHARGE Association
Chediak-Higashi syndrome
Chemodectoma
Cherubism
Chickenpox
Chikungunya
Childhood disintegrative...
Chionophobia
Chlamydia
Chlamydia trachomatis
Cholangiocarcinoma
Cholecystitis
Cholelithiasis
Cholera
Cholestasis
Cholesterol pneumonia
Chondrocalcinosis
Chondrodystrophy
Chondromalacia
Chondrosarcoma
Chorea (disease)
Chorea acanthocytosis
Choriocarcinoma
Chorioretinitis
Choroid plexus cyst
Christmas disease
Chromhidrosis
Chromophobia
Chromosome 15q, partial...
Chromosome 15q, trisomy
Chromosome 22,...
Chronic fatigue immune...
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Chronic granulomatous...
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Chronic myelogenous leukemia
Chronic obstructive...
Chronic renal failure
Churg-Strauss syndrome
Ciguatera fish poisoning
Cinchonism
Citrullinemia
Cleft lip
Cleft palate
Climacophobia
Clinophobia
Cloacal exstrophy
Clubfoot
Cluster headache
Coccidioidomycosis
Cockayne's syndrome
Coffin-Lowry syndrome
Colitis
Color blindness
Colorado tick fever
Combined hyperlipidemia,...
Common cold
Common variable...
Compartment syndrome
Conductive hearing loss
Condyloma
Condyloma acuminatum
Cone dystrophy
Congenital adrenal...
Congenital afibrinogenemia
Congenital diaphragmatic...
Congenital erythropoietic...
Congenital facial diplegia
Congenital hypothyroidism
Congenital ichthyosis
Congenital syphilis
Congenital toxoplasmosis
Congestive heart disease
Conjunctivitis
Conn's syndrome
Constitutional growth delay
Conversion disorder
Coprophobia
Coproporhyria
Cor pulmonale
Cor triatriatum
Cornelia de Lange syndrome
Coronary heart disease
Cortical dysplasia
Corticobasal degeneration
Costello syndrome
Costochondritis
Cowpox
Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia
Craniofacial dysostosis
Craniostenosis
Craniosynostosis
CREST syndrome
Cretinism
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Cri du chat
Cri du chat
Crohn's disease
Croup
Crouzon syndrome
Crouzonodermoskeletal...
Crow-Fukase syndrome
Cryoglobulinemia
Cryophobia
Cryptococcosis
Crystallophobia
Cushing's syndrome
Cutaneous larva migrans
Cutis verticis gyrata
Cyclic neutropenia
Cyclic vomiting syndrome
Cystic fibrosis
Cystinosis
Cystinuria
Cytomegalovirus
Dilated cardiomyopathy
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Restrictive cardiomyopathy
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Medicines

CLL is the most-diagnosed form of leukemia in adults. Men are twice as likely to develop CLL as women, however the key risk factor is age: over 75% of new cases are diagnosed in patients over age 50. About 7300 new cases of CLL are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.

Subtypes

CLL has two subtypes: B-cell and T-cell. The B-cell subtype is the most common form (about 95%) and shows up mainly in the bone marrow and blood. B-cell CLL is closely related to (and some may consider it the same as) a disease called small cell lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma expressed primarily in the lymph nodes. (It is likely that most cases referred to as T-CLL are large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia. LGL leukemia is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder with autoimmune features, many experts deny that T-cell CLL exists).

Diagnosis

CLL is often incidentally discovered when a patient has a routine blood test. An excessive WBC (white blood cell) count is usually the first clue. The CLL diagnosis is confirmed by follow-up tests such as: differential WBC count which reveals high lymphocyte levels and the presence of abnormal cells; a specialized test called flow cytometry to detect the abnormal cells and determine their type; and sometimes also by bone marrow biopsy.

Some newly-diagnosed CLL patients have no clinical symptoms at all. Others report a general feeling of ill health, fatigue, low-grade fever, night sweats, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, enlarged spleen, frequent infections, weight loss and loss of appetite.

A crucial part of the CLL diagnosis is determining the immunophenotype of the leukemia, that is, the abnormal proteins expressed by the leukemic cells. Flow cytometry is a very accurate immunophenotyping tool that identifies the presence or absence of specific protein antigens on blood or bone marrow cells.

The immunophenotype not only confirms the CLL diagnosis, but can also determine treatment. In B-cell CLL, an antigen called CD20 is often found on the leukemic cells. Using this information, researchers developed a monoclonal antibody drug called rituximab (Rituxan) to fight only CD20-positive cells.

Stratification of risk of progression

Stratification of the risk of progression is becoming an accepted method of determining prognosis. This is done with the IgVH mutational status test, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), and immunophenotyping for CD38 and ZAP-70 positivity. Patients with IgVH mutated CLL have a better prognosis than those with unmutated CLL. The FISH test looks for common chromosomal abnormalities—deletions of the 13q region have the best prognosis, followed by no detected deletions or "normal" karotype. Deletions of chromosome 12 are in the middle, with deletions of 11q signaling potentially aggressive disease. Deletions of 17p usually signal the most aggressive disease. CD38-negative patients have the better prognosis. The ZAP-70 test is still being standardized; those with ZAP-70 negative results have the better prognosis.

Read more at Wikipedia.org


[List your site here Free!]


Photodynamic therapy in treating patients with lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia
From Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 5/1/05

This study is currently recruiting patients. Sponsors and Collaborators: Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Randomized phase II trial to study the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy using aminolevulinic acid in treating patients who have cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, B-cell lymphoma, or early chronic lymphocytic leukemia involving the skin.

Study ID Numbers: CDR0000269906; RPCI-DS-9732; NCT00054171

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00054171

COPYRIGHT 2005 Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

Return to Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Home Contact Resources Exchange Links ebay