Clinical Features of Chinese Patients With CLL: Focus on Age

By: Lauren Harrison, MD, MS
Posted: Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Xin Wang, MD, PhD, of Shandong University, Jinan, China, and colleagues published a study that highlights differences between patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in China and the United States. Specifically, Chinese patients with CLL were found to be relatively younger than those of predominately European descent. The study, published in Frontiers in Oncology, also provided analyses of risk evaluation for Chinese patients with CLL in different age groups.

Researchers identified a cohort of 601 patients with CLL who were treated at Shandong Provincial Hospital from October 2010 to October 2021. Patients were defined as young if they were younger than age 60 and were considered elderly if they were aged 60 or older. Survival, clinical-pathologic parameters, and mutation status were compared with data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2010 to 2018.

The overall survival was longer among patients who were treated at Shandong Provincial Hospital compared with the SEER cohort (P = .047). Young patients from China had a longer overall survival than those from the United States (P = .009); however, there was no significant difference among elderly patients (P = .083). Although 27.6% of the Chinese cohort received chemotherapy, 13.2% of the SEER cohort was treated with chemotherapy.

In the Chinese database, 32.19% of young patients with CLL and 26.63% of elderly patients with CLL received treatment. The most common treatment among both young and older patients was fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (received by 17.3% of young patients and 26.5% of older patients). Young patients who received first-line therapies achieved complete or partial remission 65.4% of the time, and elderly patients achieved the same 76.5% of the time. The relapse rate was also higher in young patients with CLL (P = .045). There was no significant difference between the progression-free survival of young and older patients.

Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Frontiers in Oncology