Research - clinical trials for CLL

Clinical trials may be carried out to:

• test new treatments, such as new chemotherapy drugs, gene therapy or cancer vaccines
• look at new combinations of existing treatments, or change the way they are given, to make them more effective or reduce side effects
• compare the effectiveness of drugs used to control symptoms
• find out how cancer treatments work
• find out which treatments are the most cost-effective.

Trials are the only reliable way to find out if a different type of treatment is better than what is already available.

Taking part in a trial

You may be invited to take part in a treatment research trial, and there can be many benefits in doing this. Trials help to improve knowledge about leukaemia and develop new treatments.

You will be carefully monitored during and after the study. Usually, several hospitals around the country take part in these trials. It’s important to bear in mind that some treatments which look promising at first are often later found to be less effective than existing treatments, or to have side effects that outweigh the benefits.

If you decide not to take part in a trial your decision will be respected and you do not have to give a reason. There will be no change in the way you are treated by the hospital staff and you’ll be offered the standard treatment for your situation.

You may wish to read our section on cancer research trials|, which discusses the issue in more detail.

Blood and tumour samples

You may have blood and bone marrow or lymph node samples taken to help make the right diagnosis. You may be asked for your permission to use some of your samples for research into cancer. If you take part in a trial you may also give other samples, which may be frozen and stored for future use when new research techniques become available. Your name will be removed from the samples so you can’t be identified.

The research may be carried out at the hospital where you are treated, or at another one. This type of research takes a long time, and results may not be available for many years. The samples will be used to increase knowledge about the causes of cancer and its treatment, which will hopefully improve the outlook for future patients.

Current research

There are a number of CLL trials going on in the UK. Many of the trials are organised by the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) CLL trials sub-group. Some trials are testing new combinations of existing treatments, to find out if this makes them more effective. Other trials are looking for more effective treatments for CLL that is difficult to treat or is no longer responding to standard treatments.

One of the newer drugs being tested is a biological therapy called lenalidomide (Revlimid®)|. Lenalidomide is taken as a tablet. It works by helping the body’s immune system to target cancer cells and is being tested in the CONTINUUM trial.

The trial is trying to find out if lenalidomide helps stop CLL coming back in people who have already had two different types of chemotherapy treatment. To be eligible people have to have completed their second course of chemotherapy within the last 8–16 weeks and to have had a complete remission|.

Information about current clinical trial databases can be found here|.