Understanding CLL and iNHL
How improved prognosis has created hope for patients.
One of the most important things to know about cancers is that no two are the same. If the day comes that we have the much sought after “cure for cancer,” it will undoubtedly take the form of tens, hundreds or even thousands of distinct cures for various types of cancer. Even a relatively specific category such as blood cancers, can be divided into leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, which between them contain dozens of sub-types, each of which can present differently in patients and may require substantially di erent treatments.
Indeed, there are types of leukemia like chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which is treated as a lymphoma despite the name. “Leukemia is just a basket term that states that there have been cancer cells detected in the bloodstream,” explains Dr. John Kuruvilla of Princess Margaret Hospital. “It’s a bit of an arbitrary definition ,just based on where you can find the disease
typically. A lymphoma can be a leukemia if it’s in the blood.”
The following articles will look at indolent NHL and CLL, which share many similarities despite their distinct classifications.