This touches on the thorny issue of clonal evolution and the concern that treatment might lead to a Darwinian selection of the fittest, in this case the most resistant and probably the nastiest sub-clone of the CLL bunch.
Still, Dr. Sharman points out how the new biological treatments may force us to reexamine (and I do mean examine in a formal one) our long held beliefs about the inadvisability of early treatment.
Some of the new kinase inhibitors such as ibrutinib and idelalisib seem to have less of this risk, as they seem nearly as active on the high risk clones as in the more wimpy cancer cousins.
But there remains too many gaps in our knowledge to know what is the right thing to do, but we are moving forward at a rapid clip. And what may seem the best choice today, will certainly be different tomorrow.
Here's Dr. Sharman in part 3 from Cologne, Germany. If you haven't seen part 1 and 2 of the interview, please scroll down to the two prior posts.
More to come soon.
PS: I love the comment that my tie looks like gene sequencing. That made my day.