Treatment of Hairy Cell Leukemia
Hairy cell leukemia is a highly treatable disease. Although there are several treatment options, the current initial treatment of choice is a group of drugs called purine analogs. While both 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine (cladribine) and 2'-Deoxycoformycin (pentostatin) are very effective, cladribine may offer some advantages because it usually requires one five day or one seven day course of treatment. In either case, blood counts tend to go lower before they improve. Patients will be monitored closely for fever and signs of infection until blood counts return to safe levels.
Although most patients respond well and achieve a complete response of prolong duration after being treated with one of the purine analogs, some patients do relapse. Some patients that relapse may be retreated with cladribine. Others may be treated with a monoclonal antibody (Rituximab) or recombinant anti CD-22 immunotoxin therapies (BL-22 or HA-22), all of which are currently in clinical trials. Click here for more information on these and other clinical trials.
For more information, register on this site, or contact Tim Maher, Vice President of Patient Services at hairycellpatientservices@hotmail.com. You may also call (847) 925-5222 (9:00am - 6:00pm Central Time, Mon-Fri) or write to us at Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Foundation, Inc., 790 Estate Drive, Suite 180, Deerfield, IL 60015 USA.
Click here to read more on current treatment options for hairy cell leukemia patients.
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