Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is a condition characterized by an accumulation of abnormal lymphocytes (a type of white blood cells), in the blood and bone marrow. Hepatitis C is another type of cancer that will be affecting primarily the liver. There is not a cure for either of these diseases but the chances of survival have improved greatly over the years. Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and Hepatitis C (HCV) are both forms of cancer so you cannot treat one without worsening the damage of the other.
CLL is a lymphoid malignancy that occurs in a heterogeneous patient population. Lymphoid malignancy is a term used to describe a cancerous tumor that can spread and invades surrounding lymph nodes. CLL is caused by the overproduction of abnormal b lymphocytes. This is in contrast to the term begin, which references conditions are not necessarily invasive and do not spread throughout the body. Heterogeneous can be described as the diversity of nearly anything whether its population, classrooms, or collections. Patients may be risk stratified into low, intermediate, and high-risk categories based on prognostic factors, which may influence the approach to treatments. Differences in cell morphology, immunophenotype, cytogenetics, and molecular characteristics impact the clinical courses of disease and individual patient response. Cell morphology is essential in identifying the shape, structure, form, and size of cells. In cancer, for instance, cell morphology pertains to the shape and size of the cancer cells. Immunophenotype is the study of the lymphoma cells and is critical in the definitive diagnosis of anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Cytogenetics is to determine chromosome changes in cells, and molecular genetic studies which are the DNA and RNA tests of the cancer cells. Molecular is consisting of molecules, which would be relating to a simple structure or form. The effect of aging upon medical fitness and comorbidities differs greatly among individuals and is a very important factor to consider when deciding on a treatment strategy.
According to the Wierda WG, Keating MJ, O'Brien S. Chronic lymphocytic leukemias. In: DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008:2278-2292; CLL is the most common leukemia that affects adults in the United States and Europe, accounting for 25% to 30% of all adult leukemia’s. In 2009, an estimated 15,490 new patients were diagnosed in the US while the prevalence was approximately 95,000 in 2008. Geographic and ethnic differences are particularly important. In Asian countries, CLL represents only 5% of all leukemia’s. In the United States, Caucasians have the highest incidence, followed by African Americans and Hispanics. Individualizing treatment for each patient can be different. The selection of a specific treatment approach for an individual patient is based on patient characteristics and goals of treatment. Age and ethnicity has a big part with each individual treatment. Organ function, performance status, and medical fitness are other characteristics that can determine what kind of treatment is available. The use of risk adaptive approaches to therapy calls for weighing the potential benefit that a patient may receive from treatment against the potential adverse events the patient may experience. It is very important to consider the patient’s prognosis, medical fitness and age when considering the aggressiveness of an approach to treatment. Risk adaptive management strategies that incorporate prognostic factors, along with medical fitness status and other patient characteristics have been proposed. Hepatitis C (HCV) is a viral infection of the liver and is now a major health issue worldwide, with significant morbidity and mortality. Hepatitis C is a blood borne virus which is transmitted from person to person by blood to blood contact. There is about 35% of people that have been diagnosed with HCV are IV drug abuse. People that drink alcohol have a higher risk of developing Hepatitis C. Ten percent of infected people experience an acute symptomatic illness. Around 25%-30% spontaneously clears their virus shortly after becoming infected. The remaining 70-75% who fails to clear the virus develops chronic infection and consequently is at risk of ultimately developing liver failure or liver cancer. The presence of hepatitis C infection can be determined by a blood test checking for the presence of antibodies to the virus. Anyone in any of the at-risk groups is advised to be tested. If this test is positive, another blood test to check for the presence of the virus is also done. Liver enzymes and other blood tests to evaluate liver function will often be used in monitoring disease. The treatment for HCV would depend on the severity of the disease. Long term interferon alpha causes regression of cirrhosis in 5 to 10 percent. Interferon used in combination with Ribavirin or orthotopic liver transplantation. Ten percent of people have stainable iron; some hepatologists use iron content and location in patient management to help sustain the treatments that the patient is receiving. Hepatitis C is a common cause of liver inflammation, liver disease, and liver cancer in North America. Almost 250,000 Canadians have hepatitis C, but many are not aware that they carry the virus. This is because many people infected with the hepatitis C virus do not have symptoms. Hepatitis C is transmitted from one person to another through blood or blood products is infected with the virus. Modern screening tests have almost eliminated the transmission of hepatitis C through blood products (transfusions). Some of the causes of this are sharing needles, non-sterile tools in tattooing, blood transfusions and organ transplants, sharing personal care items such as razors and nail clippers. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Hepatitis C are types of cancer and both can affect the liver and blood. The incidence of CLL in men is twice that of women. One retrospective study of women noted a nonsignificant trend toward reduced risk of CLL with increasing parity, prompting speculation that pregnancy lowers the risk for CLL. However, hormones have not been demonstrated to play any role in the development of CLL.If your physician is treating you with chemotherapy for the CLL, the chemotherapy can cause severe damage to the liver, which is the HCV. With frequent checkups and the right test are performed then your survival rate of either can be extremely high. There are treatments available for each disease and some that can put the cancer in remission. People with these diseases will need to talk to their physicians and see which treatment would be suitable for them but also make sure of the risk of each treatment.

References http://www.biooncology.com Wierda WG, Keating MJ, O'Brien S. Chronic lymphocytic leukemias. In: DeVita VT, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology. 8th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008:2278-2292
Müller-Hermelink HK, Montserrat E, Catovsky D, Campo E, Harris NL, Stein H. Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma. In: Swerdlow SH, Campo E, Harris NL, eds. WHO Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues. 4th ed. Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer; 2008:180-182. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/leukemia-chroniclymphocyticcll/detailedguide/leukemia-chronic-lymphocytic-key-statistics. http://pricesmartfoods.mediresource.com/pharmacy/disease_detail.asp?disease_id=292