Immune dysfunction complexity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia ‒ an issue to consider when designing novel therapeutic strategies

Abstract

A complex interplay between chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells and different constituents of the immune system generally results in immune tolerance. As targeted therapies are gaining a critical role in the therapeutic landscape of this disease, their impact on the already perturbed immune milieu needs to be considered. This review addresses the issues of basic immune dysfunction in CLL which is further complicated by the effects of a number of novel targeted therapies used for this malignancy. These new approaches may simultaneously facilitate both anti- and pro-cancer activity, potentially compromising the depth of response to therapy. Current evidence suggests that exploiting combination therapy could potentially overcome at least part of these deleterious effects, thereby prolonging response to treatment and helping to restore immune activity.

Keywords:

• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• immune dysfunction
• targeted therapy
• CLL
• therapeutic strategies

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to acknowledge with thanks the assistance of Sonia Kamenetsky in the preparation of the manuscript.

Author contribution

SR-H: reviewed and interpreted published data and wrote the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).