Total body irradiation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Relationship between therapeutic response and prognosis

✍ Scribed by Ralph E. Johnson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1976
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 500 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(197606)37:6<2691::aid-cncr2820370618>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

There is lack of evidence to date that treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) alters the natural history of disease or influences survival. I n the present series, total body irradiation (TBI) produced a range of therapeutic responses among patients with active, progressive CLL. One-third of patients experienced virtually complete clinical and hematologic remissions with the initial course of T B I . These patients did not differ from the less complete re sponders with respect to age or sex, degree of lymphocytosis in the peripheral blood, incidence of anemia and/or thrombocytopenia, o r the frequency of constitutional symptoms. However, the patients with complete remissions noted a return to normal performance status, had fewer serious infections, demonstrated recovery from depressed immunoglobulin levels, a n d had significantly longer survival. These data indicate that T B J is capable of inducing remissions which modify the course of disease in patients with CLL and that prognosis has a direct correlation with the response to therapy.